More About Books

So yesterday I decided to clean off the bookshelf beside my bed. I took every single book off the shelves, and sorted them into three piles initially.

• Books I no longer wanted (I will donate them.)
• Books I want to keep on this shelf
• Books I have not read yet but want to

The picture above is the stack of books that I have not read yet but want to! Well, some of these books I have started to read but have abandoned them for various reasons (not the right time for that book, another book that appealed to me more was calling my name,  I was reading more than one book at the time and simply forgot about this book, etc.) Some of these books I bought, some are borrowed (and I know I need to read and return them), some are gifts, and some are suggestions from Jimmy. I had a few "not read yet" books that I decided that I will never read so I put them in the donate pile. This stack of TBR (to be read) is what I am left with!

And let me say a little bit about starting a book and not liking it, but later trying it again and loving it. I believe that sometimes the time is not right for a book to be read. That has happened to me several times. I'll begin a book and think meh....I'm not really liking this book, so I'll stop reading it. I may even recommend it to a friend or let them borrow it....and then after they read it and tell me about it I'll try it again. Usually, the second time I begin reading the book it works. For example, now may not be the time for you to read a book about a pandemic! Or maybe that is exactly what you would like to read right now. Sometimes we are in the mood for a memoir, and sometimes we just want to escape with some fun fiction.  

There have been times in my reading life that all I wanted to read were informational books about homeschooling and parenting, but now I find that I enjoy well-written fiction about normal people's lives--nothing too shocking or outrageous or unbelievable, just the normal daily struggles of people trying to live and love as decent human beings. I find that I learn a lot about relationships, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, hard work, and faith by reading about people and how they deal with challenges in their normal walks of life. 

However, I also can't wait to read John Grisham's new book which will be totally unrelated to my everyday life, but it will be such an enjoyable read!