What Are You Reading?

The living room at my old house, featuring the bookshelves the husband sanded(3x), polyed(3x), and assembled.

I read all the time. And I usually read fiction almost exclusively. But every once in a while I get on a non-fiction, usually self improvement kick. I’m on one right now. I decided to search on Amazon last week for books that might be inspirational about home keeping. By inspirational, I do not mean a prayer or reflection for each day or week. I mean kick in the pants, fired up inspirational. I wasn’t extremely successful in my search. Maybe I needed better search terms.

I ended up orderingRadical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes. Haven’t cracked it open yet, but am a bit frightened by the illustration on the front cover. It looks like a roided out woman athlete from the old Soviet Block. There’s even a shadow over the armpit which suggests hair to me. Ewww!

I also ordered two books by Julie Morgenstern: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life and Never Check E-Mail In The Morning. The last one seems more geared towards people who have a job, but I thought it might help me. I should be treating homemaking as my job, but I really don’t. The fact is that if I worked for someone else, I would do a better job (or I would be fired!). And that’s just wrong.

You know how Amazon will show you books that other people bought when they bought what’s in your cart? Well, a really interesting marriage book popped up and I got it. It’s called 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage From Good to Great by Terri L. Orbuch Ph.D.. What really intrigued me about this book is that she is getting her information from the longest running study on marriage in U.S.. These people had been in this study for 22 years at the time of publication. There was some interesting and surprising information in this book. She also debunks a lot of myths and quizzes you to see if your are a moron (my term, not hers) or not when it comes to your knowledge about marriage and the myths associated with it. It was an easy read and I didn’t feel as though I had wasted my time. Here’s an interesting tidbit, most divorces are caused by… frustration. Yet another argument in favor of my “whatever, jackass!” policy. If you have no idea what I’m talking about read this.

I’m in the beginning of the SHED book now, but not far enough to give an opinion. I guess we’ll know the verdict if I clean out the Room Of No Purpose!

It’s very possible that I will get distracted by fiction in the middle of my self improvement attack. I have the latest installment in the Spellman series waiting for me, taunting me. 🙂 But I think it’s easier to read a fiction and a non-fiction book at the same time, rather than two fiction books.

What are you reading right now? Anything you have read recently that you would recommend?