The title of this post is inspired by a popular song in the 90s that my roommates and I might have been blasting loudly through our open windows once when our home teachers arrived.  Ahem.  Where’s that stupid life eraser when you need it?

Anyway,

Books.

Only in the past year have I begun to read books again.  I have a college minor in English Teaching, people, and for the last 7 years, I have stumbled through an almost completely bookless fog of raising little children.  If you are currently in that fog and long to read something besides Maisy goes to the Hospital or the nutritional information on a box of Fruit Loops, you are normal.  And I promise you that the time when you and your brain become reacquainted is not as far, far away as it seems.

So my brain and I have begun a new quest for literature.  Toward the end of 2009, I read The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society.  Lots of people had mentioned it on their blogs, so I got curious enough to try it out, and I really liked it.  I also read Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons because I eventually want to read The DaVinci Code and I had heard that A&D was the prequel.  (By the way, I saw the movie after I read the book and there were some MAJOR plot deviations that bugged me.)  Despite that fact that I’ve seen all the Jane Austen movies several times, I had not read any of the books, except for one back in 2003 when I went on a cruise.  So last month, I read all three favorites:  Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion.  Loved them, of course.  Somewhere in there, I also read The Journal of Curious Letters, book one in a trilogy called The 13th Reality by James Dashner.  I have to admit that young adult sci-fi is not usually my genre of choice, but I figured that since the author took me to Homecoming in high school, I ought to give it a try.  It was pretty darn good, and I think any of your kids that liked Harry Potter would like James’ series.

Let’s see, what else?  (Be right back, I’m going to check Goodreads.com.)  Oh that’s right.  I started Wuthering Heights but didn’t really like it so I didn’t finish.  Is that bad?  I loved, loved, loved Jane Eyre.  It was the first one I read on my return to literature.  I couldn’t believe I’d never read it before.  Matt recently read The Undaunted by Gerald Lund and thinks I’ll like it.  I just finished Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl and right now I’m reading the “authorized” biography of Mother Teresa.

Here’s my current “Books I want to read list.”  There are so many that I feel like I should have read AGES ago but I never have yet:

	John Adams (Paperback)
	The Hiding Place (Mass Market Paperback)
	With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln (Paperback)
	Man’s Search for Meaning (Mass Market Paperback)
	Les Misérables (Penguin Classics)

So, help me out, O wise readers, and build my request list at the library.  Please.  (I almost forgot my manners.)

1.  What books have you always wanted to read and never have?

2.  Out of all your reading, if you could give me one or two must-reads, what would they be?

3.  I’m not in the mood for dark, depressing stuff.  (This is also why I never finished Crime and Punishment.)  I can appreciate it sometimes, but lately I’m in the mood for inspirational literature.  What’s been one of your favorite inspiring books?

And if you read any LDS literature, do me a favor and fill out this quick survey for my author friend, Rebecca Irvine.  It’s only 8 questions and helps her with some market research.

Thanks!  I can’t wait to see your recommendations.

p.s.  I am kind of a book prude, so show a tiny bit of restraint in your suggestions.  If the book cover looks anything like this, consider me uninterested.  (Sorry, Kristina and DeNae. *wink*)