Jenna blogs about books…

Books, Books Everywhere

I’m Jenna Petersen and I’m a book addict.

 

This is the part where you all say, “Hi Jenna.” Seriously, it’s getting to the 12-step kind of arena for me. See, I’ve always loved books. I started reading at a very young age and I ripped through books like they were nothing. I’d read a little book or two a day, then bigger books. My Mom read the first Anne book by L.M. Montgomery to me because it was slightly above my reading level at the time. But once I had the cadence and language down, I read the rest myself, and then found every other book she’d ever written and read all of those (I still have all my books from her… must re-read).

 

Obviously as school got more complicated, reading got harder to squeeze in, but I still did it. And then something happened that increased my love for reading and decreased my time for it. I started writing.

 

That is the biggest trade off of being a writer, I think. Not the stress, not the deadlines, not the mean reviews or the pressure for success (all of which are bonuses LOL), but the lack of time to read. Especially when I’m close to deadline and writing extra pages and time per day, reading sometimes feels like an extension of my job. And what I really want to do is sink down into the couch and watch America’s Next Top Model and let my brain cells rot.

 

Don’t even get me started on my issues with historical romance. See, I don’t read historical romance while I’m writing it. And all I write is historical romance. And I seem to be writing it all… the … time. Which is good, it means I’m employed.

 

But bad because I miss reading it. I came to romance very late in life, after I started writing it, actually. So the mother’s of romance in my life aren’t Woodiwiss and Garwood, but Quinn and Kleypas and Osborne and Boyle. And all those ladies are still writing very regularly. Do you know how many books are on the pile next to my bed? Lots!! Too many to count.

 

But this year, it’s going to be different. In 2008, I’m going to read through that pile. I swear!

 

Of course, I said that last year, too. But this time, I mean it.

 

What are you reading right now? Anything you wish you had more time to read? And how big is your TBR pile?

*Don’t forget to check Sunday’s post for details on how to win this week.