My reading list

This is my reading list.

No, wait. Make that random slips of paper, stuffed in an envelope, tucked away in my purse, bearing the titles of books I want to read. Maybe my reading stash would be more accurate.

Granted, it is NOT the most efficient system in the world. I have a hunch some people keep reading lists on their computers or cell phones or tablets. Fancy the thought.

Not me. I collect little slips of paper. Much like the little mouse who partially shredded a telephone book into fine, fluffy confetti to create her nest in a co-worker's desk drawer some years back. I understand you, little mouse.

My reading list's workplace cousin: Post-it notes on a wall.

For the record, there are currently 19 slips of paper in my reading stash. Newspaper clips, yellow stickies, the corner of a notepad torn and folded. Some have 6-7 titles written on them. Some just one. Titles jotted down, often horizontally, after reading a book review or hearing an author interviewed on public radio. A couple are printed -- Nancy Pearl reading lists, I think.

I've been told it's an odd system. My book group has chortled more than once when I pull out my stash, papers flying, announcing "I just heard about this book. . . ." And I can only imagine what fellow bookstore shoppers think, watching the crazy lady in the Fiction / Authors M-P aisle flailing through a tattered envelope stuffed with crumpled clippings and post-it notes.

But it's my system. And It works. I'm steadily reading my way through the stash, adding new prospects here and there. And I should note -- when half of the stash slides into a foot-soaking tub, bobbing lightly among the ice cubes like autumn leaves on Cannon Hill pond -- it's not quite as traumatic as watching your cell phone or iPad mini go into the drink.

So it's got that going for it. Which is good.