Books, Books, Books

It's an understatement to say that we all love books over here.

Natasha could go to the library every other day at the rate she goes through books. True, I'm talking about picture books, and a couple chapter books thrown in, but still. Her most recent chapter book was "The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic" by Jennifer Trafton.
I'm thrilled Lincoln will sit and look at the pictures with us and even sit through an "older" story book.
Daniel is currently re-reading, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Mere Christianity".
I typically have two books going at once: a non-fiction and a more fun, easy-read fiction one or a memoir. Right now I have bookmarks in: "How to Raise a Wild Child" by Scott D. Sampson, and "Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected-A Memoir" by Kelle Hampton.
For our "read aloud" I just started reading "The Green Ember" by S. D. Smith to Natasha.

This isn't even touching all the cute picture books we get. Oh my. My brother-in-law moved to Las Angeles in January, and he kindly left me those wire baskets pictured above, and they have been superb for storing our library finds. I used to keep them in a picnic style Longaberger basket, but it was never large enough. I just looked at our library tally and it says we have 69 books currently checked out. Yeah. That won't work in one Longaberger basket. These wire ones are so much more sturdy and I don't fret about the wooden basket cracking. So, Amos, we do miss you, but I sure like having your wire baskets.

My favorite method of choosing new picture books is from the several Instagram "bookworm" accounts I follow. They are always highlighting children's literature and then I simply save the ones I like, request them online at home from our library system and when I stop in, the librarians (who know I'm the crazy mom with a huge stack on the reserve shelf) just start checking them out for me. That way I don't have to spend a lot of time perusing the shelves hoping to find something. Natasha does that herself, and I just pre-request the really good ones that I want to come home with.

Here's a list of great gals to follow on Instagram for new book ideas:

• Abigail Bechard, from MamaReads
• Sarah MacKenzie, from ReadAloudRevival
• Michelle Sterling, from AveryandAugustine
• Eileen, from PictureThisBook
• TheCaterpillarCorner
• Janssen Bradshaw, from EverydayReading

What's on your nightstand? Do you read more than one book at once?