The ABC's of books

I am not doing very well on the A to Z challenge. I started out very well and thought I would be finished by now but I got sidetracked by a series of books that unfortunately didn't start with all of the right letters. I read one of the Elm Creek Quilt series by Jennifer Chiaverini and decided that I must go back and start at the first book and read them all. Well, I haven't finished all of them yet but I have read 10. They are very good books.

Then, it was my birthday last week and I went shopping for all of the free stuff that I got emails for. There were pearl earrings from Helzburg Diamonds, a $10 gift card from Victoria Secret, a free burger from Red Robin and a 15% off coupon from Kohls. While I was doing all of that anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to use the Barnes and Noble gift card that I had received for Christmas last year. We don't have a bookstore in our local mall anymore so I have to travel to a town 30 miles away to get my hands on books and I just hadn't had time to browse yet. I ended up with 4 new books there, that again don't fit the missing letters of my challenge.

I know you are wondering so here they are:

• On Agate Hill by Lee Smith (my current read and I am enjoying it)
• Everlasting by Kathleen E. Woodwiss
• The Gatecrasher by Madeleine Wickham
• Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (I prefer to read the book before I see the movie)

Today I acquired a new bookshelf to put in the spare room and loaded many paperbacks onto it that had been in piles on the living room floor AND unpacked two boxes of books from when we moved here 4 years ago. Seeing all of those familiar books that I haven't read yet has me itching to get started on some of them.

So, the plan is to finish my current book and then take inventory of all the books around here and make a list of ones that will fit in with my missing letters and try to get started on those. When I get them together, I'll post the list here to make me accountable for getting them read before the end of the year.