The Mysterious Garden Muse

I calculated awhile back that if I read two books a day, every day for the rest of my life, I'd have to live to be about 150 years old before I get to the bottom of my waiting-to-be-read pile. Of course, it isn't really a "pile" - it's boxes and shelves filled with books waiting to be read. I've made some progress recently. I have more reading time now that my grandkids are both going to day care in the morning. At some point I'll use this free time for writing instead of reading, but this summer I'm firmly entrenched in reading mode. Two things about my "to-be-read" pile, besides the fact that it's not a pile. It's not static, since I'm always adding new and used books to it. And I don't always reach for a book I haven't read. I'm a big fan of re-reading old favorites. Several years ago I started logging all the books I'd been reading on the Barnes & Noble website. Later, I started building a more co

BINGE I Googled the word binge and this was the top result: " a short period devoted to indulging in an activity to excess, especially drinking alcohol or eating. "he  went on a binge  and was in no shape to drive" synonyms: drinking bout,  debauch ;  In my lexicon, binge-ing almost always refers to a binge of reading. I read all the time, but there's something especially enjoyable and relaxing about reading in summer. I remember when I was a teenager, sprawling in the grass in our background, soaking up the heat as I devoured book after book.  As I've gotten older, bingeing has come to mean focusing on the entire booklist of an author, starting at book one and not stopping until I've read them all. This has always been my preferred way of reading. The luxury of reading ALL the books is a thrill that never grows old. When I was young and first fell in love with Nancy Drew, Bess, George, Ned Nickerson, Hannah Gruen et al, I got through ev