Musings About Babies and Books

This is the week I became a grandmother for the first time. 

This is also the week I realized I was a true book addict.

So, first….I am the proud grandmother (I will be called Bubbe, the Jewish grandmother) of a beautiful little baby girl my daughter and son-in-law have blessed us all with. She is just two days old and is the center of much love. So now, when people misunderstand me, and think that I write “grandma” books rather than “grammar” books, they won’t be wrong! I did write an alphabet book especially for my new granddaughter. 

And I must say that my new blessing has a bookcase full of books! Her mother (my daughter) asked for books in lieu of cards at her baby shower. She has been showered with books. It makes my heart happy. And because I don’t sew or crochet, and knitting is a challenge (I did knit her a blanket), I decided that since I am a author, I would write her a book. 

Of course, as I have written in past posts, I love books and have told you the history of me and books from Uncle Wiggly to Nancy Drew to Janet Evanovich. 

I have recently discovered I am a true book addict because of these symptoms:

• I have many books borrowed from the library simultaneously, both in print and ebook form. Since I put the unavailable books on hold, I never know when they will be coming to me, so having so many books to read is really out of my control! So I have to look at the library website and see when they are all due and then put them in order of when I need to get them read by. Heaven forbid I should not get to one of them! The print books are easier to handle. I have three weeks, plus two renewals if the books have no waiting list (but most of them do), and then if worse comes to worst, I can always keep them past their due date. There are no fines any longer, but I hate to keep the books when people are waiting for them. I mean, how do I feel when that happens to me? With ebooks, on the other hand, I have a mere two weeks, no renewals, and when they are due, I can’t keep them. The library grabs them back virtually. 
• I keep making lists of recommended books that I want to read, and my lists are out of control. I get these recommendations from emails from places like BookBub, contest winners from places like Goodreads, and from bookstores. A local indie bookstore in California ( I used to live there) does a YouTube program a couple of times a year with book recommendations. I always watch and write everything down.

I usually read books about relationships: women’s literature. I wouldn’t really say I read “romance” in the way people think of romance books. Recently I have a read a few books that were different from my usual genres.

• Right now I am reading Dinners with Ruth, by journalist Nina Totenberg. It is a nonfiction about the author’s long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So far, very enjoyable.
• I just finished A Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I am not a big Stephen King reader. I believe I have previously read only two of his books, the one about JFK’s assassination (11-22-63) and another about a carnival, but not a book typical of King’s style. I am not so much into horror. This, of course, was a very long book. I liked the beginning and the end, but I skimmed through the middle ,which was the part about an otherworld. I guess I am not into other worlds either.
• And recently I read Random by Penn Jillette  (part of Penn and Teller). It is a novel about — random. It was interesting and I would recommend it.  It takes place in Las Vegas.

Off to see baby!