I'm sure I'm not the only one who crams things into closets when company comes. We did a pretty good job of keeping the hiding to a minimum this time (or at least I thought we did) so I wasn't expecting much as I started gathering things Saturday night. Some dirty clothes, a few puzzles and games (don't know why those just weren't put away) and some books. And some more books. And a lot more books.

A lot of freaking books in a lot of freaking places.

I'm looking right now at about 25 books I need to review. This never happens to me - I can't believe that it is happening to me right now. I'm generally very far ahead in my reviews (I already have my April column nearly complete and have started on both May and June) but these books, most of them picture books, have been read in various parts of the house and set aside and.....um.....forgotten. And then stuffed into closets. They were all over the place and I hadn't reviewed any of them.

So I'm putting together several group reviews of the picture books right now for Eclectica Magazine: poetry books, art books, nature & animals, history & biography and story books. I think I will only run the nature & animals and history & biography titles in the spring issue (live on April 1) as I could still add to the others. But regardless of when the pieces run, the reviews need to be written and I'm feeling like my life is in complete disorder until all these are written about and then shelved (or donated). (Speaking of donations I did drop 100 teen books off at Children's Hospital in SEA on Thursday so that made me feel like something was being accomplished around here.) (Many of them were reviewed but many others were duplicates or simply books I did not request and had no time to get to or no interest in reviewing.) (More than few involved vampires in some way. UGH)

Beyond the picture books I have a delightful memoir for Booklist to review. I received three books last weekend in a bit of a mad package from my editor - one needed to be read and reviewed (if possible) in five days. Fortunately it was very well written and a nature book which I enjoy so it was easy to get through. The other two are due by March 10th but I'd like to get the second review in right away now that I'm done with it. (It was hysterical and I can't wait to write about it here. It has an awesome title.)

There's also People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks and This Is Me, Jack Vance which I plan to review here and very much enjoyed. People of the Book is now out in tpb and is a nifty literary mystery that tracks the experiences of the people who created and owned a book over the centuries. Very historical with some contemporary intrigue (and drama) to boot. And Vance's autobiography is just a neat book that any fan of biography will like.

And let's see - one graphic novel for my May column on fantasy and one oversized reference book on mythological beasts for the same column. There are two historical dramas - one YA and one MG. Those will be in summer reviews - either my July column or the June issue of Eclectica. And there's The Katrina Papers which I finished a few weeks ago and will review for Voices of NOLA and Get Your War On from Soft Skull Press that I want to write up as a standalone review for Bookslut (or Eclectica if someone beats me to it over there). And there are the Ellen Datlow/Terri Windling reissued adult fairy tale titles that I'm reviewing for Eclectica. Rather that write about each book independently I've been doing an overview of the stories - noting several specific ones I enjoyed and why. All of the books are good and the whole series is excellent so I think the best way I can get new readers excited about them is to point out why I found some of the stories especially appealing.

I think that's everything. Can you believe it? These are all good books - some of them are wonderful - and I'm not dreading writing the reviews at all. I just don't ever get this far behind. Ever. I think I have learned a very valuable lesson about having one place for all books waiting for reviews and avoiding closets at all costs.

Closets are evil. Remember that.

There are many other books I'm excited about right now that I'm not done reading yet. The other day I received a big coffee table field guide The Birds of North America. It's gorgeous. I was paging through it and remembered another bird book I had seen recently and went looking downstairs and found Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidsensaul. The emergency book I reviewed for Booklist was also about birds and looking at all of them I started thinking about just how many bird books seem to be published these days. Not just field guides (of any size or price) but also books on the hobby of birding and chasing birds all over the world and raising birds. I'm pretty happy to see it - we all should care about birds - but I wonder what has prompted it. When did we become bird lovers again? Anyway, I think I will do a combined review of these books this spring. Why fight this obvious new trend? (And really - if you have to support a trend it should be a bird-loving one, shouldn't it?)

Now you know what I'm doing today and tomorrow (except for all those tedious other non book related things that one must do). But once I'm done - Huzzah! - the dining room table will be clear and I shall be yet again a woman in control.

This happens never again, I promise. As Sean Connery is my witness (ha): NEVER AGAIN!