My First Post

I am not quite sure what rock I have been hiding under lately, but I did not find the wonderful world of book blogs until about a month ago. I had been an infrequent lurker on the Barnes and Noble book club site for several years, but never knew how to venture outside that box. Somehow I found the Good Reads website in the early fall and enjoyed following some of the literary discussions there. I am not sure if it was at either one of these sites, or another random surfing incident that led me to my first "book blog." Since that fateful day, however, I have spent many joyous hours reading, musing, and contemplating several GREAT blogger sites. I have listed the blogs that I have been fortunate to find and follow on my homepage -- and at this point I want to publicly thank each and everyone of you for providing such inspiration to me. I am certainly not in your league of blogging experience, but I do hope that I might be able to pass on a little bit of my joy of reading to some of you.

My taste in reading tends to focus on the classics. I think it is because I missed reading so many of them in my youth and I feel I need to make up for lost time. I am particularly partial to the British authors of the mid-19th Century, but I plan to broaden my horizons as life goes on. I also enjoy a good, suspenseful thriller and have recently been introduced to such authors as Elizabeth George and Anne Perry. I know that as I read more and more of your wonderful sites and suggestions, my list of TBR will grow exponentially!

I never knew that reading challenges existed! I guess that would follow since I never visited the blogging world -- but I must say that I am very intrigued and quite anxious to join one. The problem is --- which one to choose!!! I teach several different classes of English at a very small, private school, and I have 4 different literature preps to do each week; therefore, much of my "free" time" is spent reading and re-reading those novels for class (I teach 7th grade - 8th grade - 9th grade and 12th grade English). With my type A personality I could easily join several challenges each year and then drive myself crazy trying to complete the goal. I want to really study over my Christmas break the challenges that are available starting January 1, 2009, and then sign up for those that I truly think will challenge me without causing me too much anxiety. (I suppose you can tell that along with my Type A personality I am also a very detailed, analytical individual).

Well, thus ends my first post in the book blog world. I look forward to getting to know more of you in this cyber world, and I would welcome any comments or feedback that you may have.

Thank you all so very much for introducing me to this wonderful community!
Molly