i love to read, but ...

I can't remember a time that I didn't love reading. In fact, my mom tells a story about finding me crying as a young child because I didn't know how to read. Once I could read, I hardly ever stopped. As an elementary student, I flew through all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books I could get my hands on. I read every Baby-sitters Club book the local library had; while I waited for new titles, I also read the Baby-sitters Little Sister books, which were admittedly geared at much younger children. I even got the Baby-sitters Club game for Christmas one year.

In junior high, I started reading Jeanette Oke's books--my first foray into the Christian romance genre. I also read all of the Anne of Green Gables books, and I distinctly remember crying my eyes out on my parents' bed as I read about Anne & Gilbert's son Walter dying in WWI.

In high school, I read a lot of Lori Wick and Robin Jones Gunn, and I read just about every Christian romance I could get my hands on. Admittedly, those were probably not the best books for me to be reading ...

College is when I discovered Karen Kingsbury. She's still my favorite author. Then after college, a friend got me started on Ted Dekker. I could go on and on, but you get the point--I read a lot!

Obviously, I gravitate toward fiction, mainly the Christian variety. So one thing I really appreciate about the book review programs I participate in (booksneeze and Blogging for Books) is that they've caused me to branch out and read some non-fiction! (In fact, two of the best books I've read have come from these programs: Fearless by Max Lucado and Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris. You can see my reviews here and here.)

However, these programs have caused a new problem--or maybe exacerbated an existing problem. I simply don't have time to read everything I've agreed to read! Oh, I'll finish the books and get the reviews in on time, but at what expense? I simply have a difficult time passing up a free book if it sounds even remotely interesting. Thus, I have two reviews to post yet this week (and I still have to finish reading one of the books) and two to post two weeks from now (and I haven't even opened those books yet). And I'm pretty sure I have another review due the week after that, and it's for a book I haven't received yet!

Perhaps the best question to ask myself right now is this: Why am I blogging instead of reading???