From the foot of Mount TBR

TBR stands for "to be read." Most avid readers have a TBR pile. Those of us who are hard-core, unrepentant book addicts often find ourselves staring up the slopes of a veritable mountain.

We have an insatiable urge to acquire books. Nothing stops us - not dwindling shelf space, not the dismayed looks of significant others when we return from ANOTHER trip to the bookstore, not even the stacks of books that threaten to crowd us out of our homes.

The photos tell the tale. These snapshots show just some of my book-crammed shelves. I expect the floor of the "book room" to collapse any day now, spilling unread tomes into the living room below and burying me in stories not yet experienced.

In 2005, I decided to make a sincere effort to fit more reading into my life. As a kid, I swallowed books whole, reading hundreds, both from my own collection and borrowed from the library. After I graduated from college, adult responsibilities whittled away at my reading time. I read about 60 books in 12 years; more, perhaps, than the average American, but not enough to justify my obsessive book hoarding.

I began keeping a reading list to encourage myself to make reading a more frequent habit. In 2005, I read 14 books. In 2006, I finished 25. So far in 2007, I have read 29 books. I hope to keep increasing my number of annual reads and would eventually like to fit in 2-3 books a week.

After posting reviews in various places around the Web and participating in book discussion forums, I decided to create my own reading blog. I plan to share my thoughts about the books I read, as well as tidbits from my reading life.

If you've taken a break from your own reading to visit, I hope you enjoy scaling Mount TBR with me.