Stop, You're Killing Me!

Day 143 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and Christine is reading mysteries, mysteries, and more mysteries. Mysteries out the wazoo! She likes to collect a whole series before she starts reading, so she can read them in order without interruption or anxiety about finding the next one. She might read the first book from the library, but then she collects them at used bookstores, garage sales, and, as a last resort, new bookstores.

Christine is very organized, with a big 3-ring notebook, color thumbtabs, labels, and checkmarks. She is helped in her process by the fabulous mystery book website, Stop, You're Killing Me!--"a website to die for...if you love mysteries!" You can click the alphabet to find an author or a main character, and find the series listed in order, etc. So go to that link for any authors or series I mention here! (Well, I will provide a few links for clarity.)

Like Jo, who labeled these "cozy mysteries," Christine prefers "light, fun" mysteries, where everything works out in the end and nothing is too dark. She read all of Patricia Cornwall, but ultimately Cornwall "got too serious" for her. She is not reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium Triology!

She also does not like the Magoddy series by Joan Hess, though she has all 20 books, collected because she liked the first series, with Claire Molloy as a bookstore owner! When she's done with a series, she sells it or trades it for another, or, if she likes it, sends it on to her mom, also a mystery reader.

One of Christine's favorite authors is Nancy Martin, who writes about the Blackbird Sisters, starting with How to Murder a Millionaire.

I have to say I am very impressed with Christine's organizational system, including book storage. She has an armoire with the rod taken out, stuffed with books, in bags, labeled.

This is the opposite of me. I have bookshelves, yes, but also stacks on the floor that prompted my daughter to say, "Why is it a mess?!" when she walked into my otherwise neat office last night. At least my poetry bookcase is alphabetical, now with chapbooks removed and stored in baskets so they don't get squeezed by bigger books, or slip behind them when books are moved. And also to protect the ribbons on the spines of some of them! We don't want any poetry chapbooks to cry, "Stop, you're killing me!"

Be careful out there. Don't get stuffed in an armoire.