My mother read to us an hour a day and now she wonders why I have all these books.

Hee!

When I was helping my mom move into her new husband's house, I was packing up her books for her. My new stepsister and her husband were helping, too, and Dawn said to Mom, "You have so many books!" Well, Mom only has three boxes worth. Mom and I looked at each other, busted out laughing, and I told Dawn that when I moved a few months earlier, I had 20 boxes, and that was after I had gotten rid of 10 other boxes of books. Her mouth just hung open for a few seconds in utter disbelief.

Mom doesn't really reread books, so she's a regular library user. She doesn't understand why I need to hang onto my books, nor why I would ever want to reread them. She really doesn't get why I'd reread a book 30 or 40 times, which I have done quite often.

I don't remember the first book I read; I really can't remember life without books. According to my mom at 18 months I had some of my favorite books memorized, and it made my dad think that I could read.

Go, Dog,Go! That was one of my earliest books too. Loved that one.

Almost forgot - apparently Janet Evanovitch is starting a new series - first book comes out early in September.

I've realized that a lot of my re-reading is nostalgia for the time and place I first read the book, rather than, or in addition to, the book itself. Woman on the Edge of Time, for example, always brings back summer days at the lake: wind in the trees, birdsong, sun through the leaves, and the gentle sway of the hammock. Pattern Recognition recalls harsh winter rain, early dark, and tea to comfort away the chill. Five Lives of the Catwoman invokes Weymouth, reading outside on the grounds, and the sounds of the volunteer gardeners talking as they worked.

It may be personal idiosyncrasy, but I love that books I love enough to reread are freighted with real-world memory.

Ooh, YA booktalk! I handle teen reviews (as well as nonfiction) at my magazine, and it's probably my favorite part of the job. We used to only review one or two teen books a month, but now I generally assign six or so, because we started a new twice-monthly e-newsletter about kids' books. (It's called Reading Corner -- you can sign up here!)

Anyway, looking back over the past few months of YA titles, I can recommend The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June by Robin Benway; Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci; Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan; The Ghosts of Ashbury High by Jaclyn Moriarty; Fat Vampire by Adam Rex; Bruiser by Neal Shusterman; Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater... I could go on! There's a ton of good YA out there. I always want to cover more than we have room for.

PS, meara, thanks for the shoutout to my mom! I love her books and would definitely recommend Hard Love, Razzle, and Sandpiper at the very least.

Ooh, thanks for that link, Kate! I just subscribed.

Oh, yeah, Bev, I'm definitely the same way. I reread a ton, but books are still evocative of the era and feel where I first discovered them. And people too! I know tons and tons of people who love Hitchhikers Guide, to the point where I use it as a litmus test for potential friends, but I will always associate the books with my elementary school friend (frenemy?) Jeff who introduced me to them.

Because Anne of Green Gables is SO closely attached to memories of my grandmother and my time with her, it took me a few years after her death to be able to read them again.

Ooh, thanks for that link, Kate! I just subscribed.

Awesome!