Today marks the beginning of something really fun for me! My first blog series, and it’s going to be all about things that I love :-D

I wanted to have bullet points of quirky/fun/interesting/weird things about me on my website and my awesome designer Ravyn from Three Fifteen Design came up with the purple blocks, which I think perfectly tie into my brand and the site as a whole. If you ask anyone who’s had to write about themselves, it isn’t easy! So I thought these bullet points might be a little bit simpler :-)

I love to read books for fun! Almost as far back as I can remember I’ve loved reading. I was home-schooled kindergarten through eighth grade and we spent A LOT of days at the library downtown. I loved getting lost in other worlds through the pages! Solving mysteries with the Boxcar Children, reading about and executing crazy science experiments, imagining and putting together wild dress-up outfits from costume design books. I have such joyful memories digging through the stacks (older, not highly circulated books) and finding true treasures!

Having to read for high school pretty much ended my pleasure reading until I finished college (except for a brief spurt of reading the twilight books in a week senior year ;-)

I don’t read anywhere near as much as I’d like to anymore, but I try to pick it up whenever I have free time! Now my book reading is split between easy reading for fun books and non-fiction books about marriage and business. These are my most recent reads:

 

REAL MARRIAGE by Mark & Grace Driscoll // I can’t say enough good things about this book! I read it over the weekend while we were in Texas and can’t wait for Wil to read it too so we can talk about it :-)

A PRACTICAL WEDDING by Meg Keene // If you just got engaged or are in any stage of wedding planning, buy this book immediately. There is SO MUCH goodness in here that you just can’t find anywhere else :-)

HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY by Suzanne Collins // I read all three of these books in four days. That’s how awesome they are.

THE POWER OF A PRAYING WIFE by Stormie Omartian // If the title catches you, the book will too. Really encouraging stuff to pray through, if that’s your kind of thing!

HOW TO BE A WOMAN by Caitlin Moran // I read this for the APW book club, and thought she had a lot of really interesting insights! Lots of highlighting and underlining here ;-)

FAST TRACK PHOTOGRAPHER by Dane Sanders // Such a great book, I read this just before hearing Dane speak here in October. He focuses on making your business about YOU which of course I fully support and appreciate!

FINE ART WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY by Jose Villa// So many pretty pictures, and wonderful little bits of wisdom. I am hearing Jose speak next month at WPPI in Las Vegas and I cannot wait!!! :-D

THE TOURIST by Olen Steinhauer // This is a thrilling vacation read :-)

THE 22 IMMUTABLE LAWS OF MARKETING by Al Reis & Jack Trout // Business, business, business. Some things that should be common sense but aren’t! They clearly spell these marketing laws out and I wanted to just hug the book it made so much sense! Now to implement….

SPOUSONOMICS by Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson // So freaking good. If you and/or your spouse loves economics and analyzing things…. just do it. It’s actually a LOT more fun to read than it sounds like ;-)

Now I just have to figure out what to read next! What do you suggest? 

This little video is something I found yesterday online via the ever lovely Elizabeth Korb and it was positively too adorable not to include!

 

What about you? What are your favorite books to read? What are you reading now? I’d love to know!!