A coworker asked me this week how many books per week I read. I gave her a vague answer because I'm not really sure how many books I read in a week.This got me thinking that it would be interesting to track my reading just so I could get an idea of how much I read and to track any patterns in my reading. In my daily reading log I've been writing down everything I read, with some exceptions: I don't count Facebook posts. That would just overcomplicate things and I'd never keep track of it all. But I include my daily Bible reading and my devotional, and I include the daily Portland Press Herald. I include any reading I do for pleasure or for  enlightenment.

What, you might ask, am I currently reading?  Here's a sampling.

The Wild Girl  by Kate Forsyth. This is a fascinating novel about the Grimm brothers and one girl, Dortchen Wild, who was a source for some of their fairy tales. The novel is written much like a fairy tale, and is fascinating. I haven't gotten too far into it yet, but I'm so looking forward to the rest of it. This novel is to be savored, like a fine wine or gourmet chocolate.

She's Not There by Joy Fielding.  A page turner so far. The story of a woman whose 2 year old daughter went missing, presumably kidnapped, and never found. Fifteen years later, a young lady contacts her claiming to be her missing daughter. As cliche as it sounds, it's gripping reading.

The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor. A historical novel about the Titanic and a young woman who survives. This does a good job of explaining how people must have felt as they were boarding the ship and getting ready to come to America.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. The classic Russian novel set during the time of the Russian revolution of 1919. It is one that I have meant to read for years and am now just getting around to. It reads an awful lot like Tolstoy's War And Peace.  Sometimes I need the challenging stuff so I know that my brain is still working!

And that's a sampling of what I like to read. Either way, the pleasure of reading helps me escape from my problems and helps me get over myself.