Every now and then I have to take inventory of my bedside table because the books, they have a way of getting out of control. Currently they are breeding like bunnies. To wit:

Julian Barnes: Arthur and George. Checked out of the library and hastily renewed five minutes before closing last night so that I might be able to finish it. An entertaining and well-crafted story. I�m a Holmes fan, so it was an obvious choice.

Alice Munro: Runaway. My next project, a gift from rs536. I can�t wait.

David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas. I�ve been meaning to read this for ages, but somehow it keeps getting moved down the pile.

Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner. Ditto for this one. I�m starting to feel like the only woman in American who hasn�t read it.

Edward Ball: Slaves in the Family. I brought this one home from my mom and dad�s the last time I was there and it looks fascinating. At the time I had just finished Edward P. Jones� Map of the Known World and it looked like a nice counterpoint. Still haven�t had a chance to get to it, though.

Henry Beston: The Outermost House. This I just finished, but I can�t quite bear to part with it yet. It was lovely.

Witness vol xix 2005: �Childhood in America.� Seeking inspiration (but not finding much).

Homer: The Odyssey. The Robert Fagles translation. Also excellent. I read the Penelope bits for book group last week and would like to read more, but probably won�t.

Alexandre Dumas: Histoire d�un casse-noisette. I was reading this around Christmas and haven�t reshelved it yet.

Christianna Brand: The Collected Tales of Nurse Mathilda (repackaged as Nanny McPhee). These were some childhood favorites and I was thrilled to find them in print in this country, as I never owned them. I�ve been reading AJ these stories of some very bad children and their nanny who is hideous when she arrives but grows more beautiful the more the children behave until she is gorgeous and then leaves. I have a feeling some kind of feminist deconstruction is in order at some point. Mostly, though, I was in love with the description of a large group of children walking in a state of both order and disorder as �a crocodile.�

Elizabeth George: Payment in Blood. My friend H. was on an Inspector Linley kick this summer and was shocked that I had never read any and left this one with me. Before I began it, it was suggested that I start at the beginning of the series, so this book still sits, unread by me.

Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees. My mom sent me this one. Pure nostalgia for a part of the world I love, otherwise I probably wouldn�t have picked this one up. I�m not sure when I�ll get to it.

Carson McCullers: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Our last book group book, but I didn�t have a chance to read it.

Narendra Jadhav: Untouchables. A publisher�s freebie that looked interesting.

Clearly the only solution to this tower of literature is to spend more time in bed. So what are you reading and not reading?

8 people said it like they meant it