Over the summer, I hit the library with quite regular intervals. I signed up to read 40 books this year for my Goodreads challenge, so I wanted to make sure I was getting it done. (of course, I have to admit) I hit that number in June (so my summer library visits were more for fun than necessity) and it’s steadily climbed ever since. But now that the pressure of the challenge is off—there never really was that much pressure, I knew I’d get the numbers in—I started getting *creative* with which books I sought. I mean, I’d already covered my To-Be-Read list and even some of my maybe list. What should I then start looking for?

Over the course of my library visits, I grabbed up several books by two of my fave authors (Linda Howard and Karen Robards). I read all that my library had by these two ladies, which is sadly not that much—it’s one the smallest of the Fort Worth Libraries. I personally have over a dozen books each myself by these two, but alas, I have already read them all—and I wasn’t sure which books I might be missing at this point. I got the idea to look up their books. You see, even though *my* library doesn’t have them, if another in their system (which includes three other cities as well) does, they can get it for me.

Anyhoo... I looked up their book list and was pleasantly surprised to see there were still a great many books to go. And about 75% of those *are* available through the library systems (the other 25% I may have to start trolling Amazon and eBay to find them). I have done this a couple times before—read through an author’s entire book list. Granted a couple of those, I caught early on, I wasn’t 20+ books back so it wasn’t as daunting. Every couple of weeks, I order two books each by these ladies. I am making good progress. And I will say it’s so interesting to read some of their work from the early 80s and compare them to now. As a writer it’s fun to see the progression in their writing.

And how I keep track... I have mentioned before I have a spreadsheet for *ALL* my books. I had to when I found myself buying a book for the third time—yes three copies of the same book. And I did this not once, but twice. My spreadsheet also has books that I have read but don’t have—I know that goes slightly over the OCD mark, but again, after picking up a book multiple times (even from the library), I needed to have some sort of checking system.

Have you ever pulled out someone’s book list and started working your way through it? What is the most you’ve ever read by one author? (I think mine is currently 14)