From one book to another book to...

I am sure that most peoples' choice of reading material is linked from one book to another. For example, I know that when I like a series, I will attempt to read the next book or two in succession. But I am not really thinking in terms of series. I am trying to figure out how to follow the influences in my reading.

I want to track the books that help me choose the book I really think I need to read next. For example, recently I read selections in Watch for the Light, all of Kidd's Firstlight and then picked up Running to the Mountain by Jon Katz. If you had read all of these books you would not be surprised that Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain is now in my reading stack.

The first three books, especially Katz and Kidd owe their existence to Merton. The famous monk is a major influence in the lives of these other authors. This doesn't mean that Merton is about to make a difference in my life. It just means that I would like to see why he is so inspiring.

Sometimes three books suggest one author to me. The opposite is true of Mary Collins' Women at Prayer. This is a short book that I am reading because of the subject matter - prayer. However, by the time Collins is finished, I have three books that I would like to read, fortunately I own two of them. The third, Awful rowing toward God by Anne Sexton will take an ILL to get it.

Well I have written all this down. Now the question is: Will I find this information if I need it?

Reading Challenges - why do people do so many? I just encountered a blog where the owner is doing more than 30 challenges this year. I am doing two and only on one of them am I posting to the blog. I have enough people telling me what to read.

I have 12 books to read for my book group; 4 books to read for Readers' Advisory (I actually will probably do more); books to read for The Big Read; and my mom will instruct me to read at least something more over the course of the year.

I read a lot - my list at Good Reads has 86 titles that I read so far this year. But how would I keep up with more than 30 challenges. Even with the fact you can use a book for more than one challenge -more power to those of you who can keep up with all this reading.

I think I will go back to my romance of the week - Charming the Prince. It is fun, light and not for any challenge except to keep my stress level down.

Here it is, almost a month since I posted last. Shameful, shameful. I may be the only person actually reading my blog, but I promised myself that I would keep it up in some way or another.

All I have to say at this moment, I finished two more books from my TBR pile and I gave the BAM challenge an idea for August. The first book is Quiet in His Presence which I liked very much. I am not crazy about the "his" part, but I will get into that when I post my review on Shelfari. The second book was The Bridal Wreath - definitely not my favorite book. More as I said - on Shelfari.

For the BAM challenge we will be doing cold books in August. Right now I need to finish the book I am reading for the July challenge which is independence.

Life is speeding along - our vacation, even at two weeks, was too short.

I finished another of my "To be read" (TBR) pile. This one was, Forty Acres and a Goat by Will Campbell. You can see my comments here:

http://www.shelfari.com/weavinglibrarian/shelf

The "review" on this website is not really a review - I just want to write down enough to remember the book. I need to practice writing reviews.

I just encountered this blog: http://tbrchallenge.blogspot.com/. The idea is that you pick 12 books - one for each month of 2008 - that you've been wanting to read for 6 months or longer, but haven't gotten around to.

I have a lot more than 12 books on my TBR list, so this seems like a good way to keep my blog going and work on all those TBRs. Here is my list with those I have already read in red.

Asch, Scholem. The Nazarene: A Novel Based on the Life of Christ
Bell, Thomas. Out of This Furnace
Campbell, Will D. Forty Acres and a Goat
Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy
Gray, Zane. Betty Zane
Grumbach, Doris. Life in a Day
Keating Thomas. Open Mind, Open Heart
Kisly, Lorraine. Ordinary Graces (this book is not meant to be read at one sitting, so this will take awhile to finish
Manning, Brendan. The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives
Harris, Jan. Quiet in His Presence
Russo, Richard. Straight Man
Undset, Sigrid. The Bridal Wreath