Addicted to the Old Ball and Chain

“How my life has been brought to undiscovered lands, and how much richer it gets – all from words printed on a page…”–Emoke B’Racz

Hi Everybody,
Just stopping through to ask if you’re addicted to the old ball and chain? Not a two-legged ball-and-chain, but a hard-or-soft-backed, e-booked, pdf-ed, illustrated, oh-so-readable ball-and-chain. Yes, I’m asking if you’re addicted to books.

I’m addicted to picture books; I resign myself to that fact. I love receiving them, I love reading them, and I love perusing their glorious covers. I love sniffing the ink (I said ink, not glue), and I love, love, love thumbing through the text.

Picture books are, in my opinion, the biz.

As many of you know, I began reviewing books nearly five years ago, and I began specializing in picture books two years ago. Since then, I’ve read and reviewed a mountain of books, and I’ve loved almost every single one. By the way, did you know that picture books are like snowflakes; no two picture books are alike!

The picture above shows my current TBR (to be read) stack. There are some real “beauties” in this stack, including a beautifully-illustrated book about things to do on a “snow day,” a hilarious and gloriously-illustrated book about what Santa does during his eleven months off, and a nonfiction picture book about a boy and his dad who meet baseball player Jackie Robinson.

Yep, I love me some picture books! 😀

But even with all this love going on, I find myself at a crossroads in life. Each time I accept a new round of picture books, my TBR stack is even taller than the time before, and I wonder if any human can actually read that many books without their head exploding. Then I struggle through to the last book, vowing to never let my stack get that high again.

Yet when at last I clear my roster, my picture-book-loving brain yearns for more books and I start all over again. Oh, I have some back-up reviewers in the wings, but I take responsibility for the bulk of the reviews. And not because I have to, but because I want to.

And so, as you can see, I’m at it again. In addition to the books above, I’ve happily accepted a most beautiful series of picture books (see right) from DRG titled “Live It Again.” I’ve created a nostalgia page for these and other nostalgia picture books on my review site, Picture Book Depot and I’ll be posting my reviews and opinions there. So I’m once again wondering if I can actually read all of these books without a brain implosion of some sort. Oh well, if it happens, at least I’ll implode happy.

Ball-and-chain, thy name is picture book.

Best wishes and happy picture-booking,

Rita Lorraine