In This Case, It Really Does Glow!

Ever had a recommendation from a friend that you just put off and put off indefinitely? There's no reason for the delay, it just somehow never makes it to the top of your ever growing TBR pile. Even more embarrassing is when the friend checks on you to see if you've read it yet -- yikes! Then you feel guilty and you finally break it out only to discover that it is truly as fabulous as promised. So you kick yourself and swear it will never happen again -- only to repeat history next time around.

Yeah, some very obvious guilt on my part here.

I need about a month with absolutely nothing to do but read. No obligations, no bills (and no need for money), maybe a private chef so I don't even have to make food decisions. Ah, that would be nice. Then I could catch up and maybe feel like I've accomplished something.

Don't get me wrong. I'm getting things done and I'm getting books read, but damn if there aren't more fantastic books in the world than there are hours in the day. I want to read them all! Have you read Jasper Fforde? I want to work for Jurisfiction and hang out with the Cheshire Cat in the Great Library. Or I want to live in Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Either one would do fine for me.

I saw Shelfari posted pics of Neil Gaiman's own book collection recently -- one of these days I'll have shelves like this.

This weekend I finally started reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Each new installment is a doorstopper in its own right, and book one, Outlander, weighs in at 850 pages. Readers have been recommending this series to me ever since my bookseller days. In fact, my store manager brought me a t-shirt that I've been wearing for at least 5 years now.

Again I have to come to my defense, I've owned the whole series since that time, buying each new installment as its released and adding it to my TBR pile so that I have the whole series when it's time to read them. I know that sounds terrible!

Well now it's time. Now I'm reading. I'm squeezing them in and going to read them around my other books and I am joining the ranks of rabid fans impatiently waiting for each new installment to the saga. And I plan on getting caught up in time for the newest title, An Echo in the Bone, when it hits shelves on Sept 22.

Big plans! It'll be a highlander marathon! I'm sure many of you a clucking at me and tsking my behavior right now. I know, I know. I'm terrible. I'm making my amends, though. Maybe by the time I get caught up it will be time for the new Stephen King and then I won't go into withdrawal quite so bad -- I hear that can happen from a massive reading marathon like this. Just look at all us readers who fell into Twilight last year (yep, that was another one I put off until the last book was released and then totally adored). So far Outlander is totally living up to the reviews others have given it.

So what book have you been putting off? Is Gabaldon languishing in your pile somewhere as well? If so, pull it out and read along with me!