Book Worm

I've always been a big reader. I remember being in fourth grade when the fourth Harry Potter book came out and I devoured it in one day. I love getting lost in books and I'm so thankful that my parents instilled a love for reading in me when I was young. I do have a Kindle and I love it (I mean really, who wouldn't love being able to carry around 20 books in the space of one?) but I've always loved the feel of a real book, and I want my future children to have the opportunity to fall in love with paper and bindings, not a piece of technology. I love the ease that my Kindle allows me to buy and read books, but I don't want my child's first "book" to be basically a computer. I want them to love turning pages, looking at illustrations and reading the text of a book that was passed down to them. With that in mind, it has always been a goal in my life to have a library in my house. One room filled wall to wall with books like the one in the Beauty and the Beast.

Ok, maybe not quite as big as that, but you get the idea.

Lucky for me, over the last couple of weekends, my boss decided to clean out her home office. She had some books that she was planning on giving to our local library, but she allowed me, and the other women that I work with, to go through them first. I grabbed some books that I've been wanting to read forever, like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Water For Elephants, but I also grabbed quite a few that I had never heard of, but sounded interesting to me. Below is the list of books that I acquired:

The Dark Side of Innocence - Growing up Bipolar by Terri Cheney

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (hardback)

Beautiful Children by Charles Bock

There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene

Wicked by Gregory Maguire (I already own and have read the green paged version, but I really wanted this version as well, purely due to the drawings.)

Informed Consent by Sandra Glahn 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Room by Emma Donoghue

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (hardback)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

Native Son by Richard Wright

Black Boy by Richard Wright

Coroner's Journal by Louis Cataldie

Any opinions of which one I should read first? I'm leaning towards The Dark Side Of Innocence. I'm weird and I like learning about what makes people tick, what makes them do the things they do, whether that be mental illness or a bad upbringing. One of my favorite shows to watch is "Lockup" on MSNBC purely because I'm interested in knowing why convicts commit crimes. What they were thinking as they robbed an elderly lady or killed their whole family.....

Well, that took a strange turn....

Anyways, these are the books I have at my disposal. If you've read any of them, I'd love to know what you thought of them. As a note, I have seen "The Help" and I loved it, so I hope I enjoy the book as well. I have not seen "Water for Elephants," but I have seen "Wicked" the musical which I loved. If you have any other suggestions for books I would enjoy, or a raving review of a book you just finished, let met know. I love getting suggestions from others. 

If you want to see what I think about these books, you can "friend" me on Goodreads.