There is no such thing as too many books

Maybe it's a reaction to having spent 5 days on retreat filled with the visual over-stimulation of so many great quilts and luscious fabrics and the aural stimulation of constant chatter and laughter.

Or maybe it's my tuning in to our Tahoe getaway, where all I wanted to do was be cozy inside, curled up on the couch next to the wood stove with a novel.

But really, I have to confess that I've always been like this, from little up. I love books and I can never have enough of them. At the moment, all I want to do is read. And read. And read.

Fortunately, I have a great stack of books from the library, packed on the shelf next to a great assortment books I've purchased but haven't yet read. (Which leads to this puzzling question: why is it that sometimes I can't find anything appealing at the library, and at other times I fill up my library basket and regretfully pass up books that practially jump off the shelves to get my attention?)

My current novel is Solo, by Emily Barr. It's a first person narrative (I love "I stories", as my sister and I started to call them when we were little) about a pop-cellist, enamored with her own celebrity and newly separated from her husband, finding out what life is like "solo." It's skillfully written, so that you feel sympathy for the heroine while also seeing quite plainly that she's a selfish and egotistical.

Caroline asked me the other day "if you could only do ONE of these for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Reading or quilting?" And I picked reading. No hesitation.

Luckily, I don't have to choose.

And I've made a new, wonderful discovery: www.LibraryThing.com. You should probably go look, because I'm finding it hard to describe what it is. It's a site where people catalog the books they've read and are reading, and talk about books, and you can catalog your own reading and get recommenations and see what others who've read what you've read have ALSO read... Basically, it's all about books. Among the fun things there, you can make a mosaic of the book covers you've read recently. How fun is that?

I love it.

So, with the rain pattering gently outside, and my head stuffy with this cold, I'm probably going to spend a lot of time reading today. A cup of tea, a box of kleenex, and a stack of books.... that's my Saturday.

What are you reading now?