I’m a bibliophile.

And a fan of bibliotherapy, which I’ll be talking more about in a later post (or two, or three)!

For as long as I can remember, I have loved biblios. 😊 Er, books!

I remember shelves of my mother’s books, and my grandmother’s shelves before her.

I had my own little shelves, even as a kid. I read and collected the entire Nancy Drew series! (Yellow spines only, thank you very much. Still have them!)

I would burrow under the blankets of my bed at night, flashlight on!

Or, if it were a warm California day, I had a secret reading place outside. There was a small hill between our house and the fence that separated us from the house behind us. At the bottom, in the corner, under the cascading ivy that went from top to bottom, a natural “cave” had formed, with just enough dappled light to read creeping through the foliage. I made a little fort there. Ah, memories of summer days, reading.

When school was in session, there was nothing better than the Scholastic book fairs. I can still smell them! 😁

And of course, there was the library.

Yes, I love books! Especially the kind you hold in your hands. I appreciate good writing, no matter how it comes to me, sure. But a book I can hold? Magic.

But sometimes, rarely, really, I go through a rough patch with reading.

I’ve recently gone through just such a patch, brought on by my husband’s health challenge and aging eyes. My husband’s health is an ongoing issue, but it was especially bad (and scary) for the last six months in 2025. Then, there are my poor eyes! It’s become difficult to read unless I have the right font size and enough light, but not too much. Oh, and I have to concentrate enough to get into the story, which was damned near impossible last year.

Although being fair, I’ve gone through these patches before for far less significant reasons. But I digress.

When I felt the itch to start reading again, the books in my featured photo ☝️ called to me. They were all in my Amazon cart, waiting. I am a fan of shopping locally, whenever possible. Not the biggest fan of Amazon, but let’s face it, they’re convenient, and I can link them easily so you can find the books I talk about even if you’re in another country. So, you will see Amazon links in my book reviews.

And yes, as you can tell, I will be reviewing books, but it will not be the foundation upon which I build this space, as it was in my prior blog.

Oh my gosh, I’m digressing again. Sorry!

I chose Miranda Hart’s book to read first, and as if to validate my choice, she recommended one of the other books I bought without knowing!

Don’t you just love synchronicity?

I will write about each of these books as I finish them. I’m about halfway through Hart’s book now. So look forward to that!

So, why am I writing today? Because I have been fretting over this blog space, knowing I need to get writing, but not knowing what to write about. I didn’t want to get caught in the wrong niche, as I determined what I really, truly wanted to accomplish here.

I still don’t know.

So, I did what I do. I froze, paralyzed. This is the bane of an anxious personality. I’ve been here before… many times.

Then it hit me!

I won’t go anywhere unless I take a step!

So, hey! This is me, moving forward.

Welcome.

Let’s walk together! Shall we?