Slipping Out of My Groove - In A Good Way

As a reader, I tend to get into - not a rut exactly - more of a groove.  I'll settle on an author or at least a genre and read book after book.  This is especially true when I discover an author/series that's already well established and I can read them back to back...like a chain smoker. 

So it surprised me a little when I looked back over the last few books I've read and realized my groove had become rather eclectic.  Going backward, I just finished LAST DAYS OF SUMMER by Steve Kluger - a wonderful story set just before WW II about the relationship between a remarkable Jewish youth and the baseball star who befriends him. This story is told entirely in the form of letters, newspaper clippings and other printed material and took me from laughter to tears. 

Before that, I read ROOM by Emma Donoghue - a truly gripping story seen through the eyes of a five year old boy who has lived his entire life in a single room, the room where his mother has been held prisonor for seven years.  Then there was TOUCH OF FIRE by Maria Zannini  - a futuristic (as in, 1200 years in the future), paranornal, steamy romance I devoured in one day.  Before Maria, there was Heather Webber's  WEEDING OUT TROUBLE - the last of the Nina Quinn series, a delightful light-hearted mystery.  And finally, one of my usual reads, a good cop mystery - THE SURGEON by Tess Gerritsen.

So how did this happen?  Well, I'll admit a couple were lent to me with orders, "You have got to read this."  But I also have to credit my venture into blogging.  Reading the blogs of both authors and readers has led me to look around a bit more when selecting my next book.  In fact, my TBR pile is probably larger and more varied right now than it's been in decades.

How about you?  Has blogging and/or following others' blogs changed your reading habits?  What are you reading now you might not have read before?

Unwriting progress: From the original 150,000 words down to 109,874 (If I don't manage to get some writing done before my next post, I'm going to quietly leave this part off.)

I'm currently enjoying: THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE by Heather Gudenkauf.

Groaner of the Day: (I didn't get much response on my last one but I'll try one more.)  Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss league records were destroyed in a fire, and so we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.

Countdown to retirement and writing full time: 25 work days to go.