Most influential book/s

My life has always been full of books since I was a baby. My dad is a *huge* pleasure reader. It's hard for me to think of one book that's had the most influence on me. The book I remember most from when I was a wee child is "One Fish, Two Fist, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. The next book I remember marking a milestone for me was "Bunnicula" by Deborah and James Howe because it was the first book I read which was around 100 pages (99). After that, "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare really struck a chord. I think it's probably the first time I read a book and realized the part of the plot I liked best was the development of the relationship between Kit and Nat. A couple of years later, I read "Strictly Business" by Leigh Michaels, my first "adult" romance. It's been downhill ever since :)

Coming up next on TBR

The TBR pile, that is. Lately, I've been doing a lot of reading for an award committee I'm serving on for my day profession. So, I'm not going to be talking about that :) For fun, I've been poking my way through Megan Hart's Broken (wunderbar!), Sherrill's Damnation from the Edge of Night anthology (fabu!), and the conference program. I'm at the big conference for my day profession, and the program's helped me keep my sanity.

These days, my life's gotten pretty full and reading time is a premium. I do make the time because it's been a constant pleasure in my life. I'm going to take a moment to make a quick plug for your local public library. Librarians like it when patrons ask about books and what's available. Make sure your librarians know what you like to read because they won't purchase it for the library if they don't know someone in the area likes it. And a service the great majority of libraries offer (even if they don't call it this) is reader's advisory. This is where you tell the librarian what you've liked reading in the past, what you're interested in reading next, and she works her magic and comes up with a suggestion or two for you. That's one of my absolute favorite parts of my job.