Operation: Smartypants: On the bookshelf...

We are big readers over here, each with our own genre preferences and reading styles.

Baby is only 4 months old so he of course enjoys board books and picture books. He loves to look at the illustrations, touches each one, and likes to try to turn the pages. When we read a book he enjoys he gets super excited, kicking his legs and making loud squeals. He spends a lot of his time staring at our bookcase at home, admiring all the colorful spines and their vertical arrangement.

Husband's favorite books are historical fiction, dystopian futures, military-based novels, action, mystery, things of that nature. He dives deep into a book and won't put it down until it's finished. He typically has one book checked out of the library, and perhaps one more audio book checked out that he listens to during his commute to work. When he completes one book, he returns it and checks out another.

I, on the other hand, am more of a "skimmer". Husband teases me because I often have up to 10-15 books checked out from the library at once. I enjoy fiction but it has to grab me right away or I get restless and move on to another. Most of the books I check out from the library, though, are nonfiction. These are the books that I skim. Topics range and often seem scattered and unrelated. I've been known to have a stack of books on my nightstand; one about personal finance, a vegan cookbook, a biography of a serial killer, and a history of the public school system in the United States. If someone were to look at my library record, they might think I'm crazy. I'm fascinated by a wide range of subjects and I want to learn about all of them. I flip through the pages, get my "fix", and move on to the next.

To share our favorites with you, as well as to keep track of books we've read for our own personal records, I've decided to start a little recurring topic I'll call "On the bookshelf...". Here you'll get a list of the books we are currently reading in case you are looking for recommendations.

Enjoy, and please send along your own favorites as well-- we're always looking for suggestions!