I've had some opportunities to spend time at the library lately and have binged on book checkouts. I went from having six books checked out to 31 in the space of about a week and a half. I figure I'm just helping my local library with their circulation stats. Here's the list of books I currently have checked out (no links this time because it's too overwhelming):

• 22 Brittania Road, Amanda Hodgkinson
• Arrogance and Power: The Saga of WOI-TV, Neil E. Harl
• The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron
• Atlantic: The Biography of an Ocean, Simon Winchester
• The Druggist of Auschwitz: A Documentary Novel, Dieter Schlesak
• Early Novels and Stories, William Maxwell
• Elsie and Mairie Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front, Diane Atkinson
• Franklin & Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, Jon Meacham
• Georgia: Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places, William Schemmel
• Hector and the Search for Happiness, François Lelord
• House Arrest, Ellen Meeropol
• Hygiene and the Assassin, Amélie Nothomb
• Insiders' Guide to Savannah and Hilton Head, Rich Wittish
• Instrument of Darkness, Imogen Robertson
• The King's Speech, Mark Logue
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Story of Savannah, John Berendt
• Mrs. Tim Flies Home, D.E. Stevenson
• Mrs. Tim Gets a Job, D.E. Stevenson
• Nora, Nora, Anne Rivers Siddons
• One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde
• Peachtree Road, Anne Rivers Siddons
• The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, Alice Ozma
• Savannah, Eugenia Price
• Secrets of the White Rose, Stefanie Pintoff
• The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
• State of Wonder, Ann Pathett
• The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, Jonathan Coe
• The Tragedy of Arthur, Arthur Phillips
• Travels in Siberia, Ian Frazier
• Under the Harrow, Mark Dunn
• The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy, Bill Carter

I also have 17 books on hold. Clearly, I will not actually be able to read all of these in the allotted time. But binges in the library are a lot easier on the checking account than binges in the bookstore! You may also be able to tell from this list that we're planning a trip to Georgia later this year.

I'm still reading two books for the the Books I Should Have Read by Now Challenge: Citizens of London and Evelina. I'm also working on The Reading Promise from my library list and just finished Ralph Keyes' The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear, which I highly recommend to writers and readers who are looking for a reason to appreciate their favorite authors even more.