Slightly OCD about the books...

So, I finally went to my Goodreads account and printed a copy of the books in my "to-read" list. Then I went to our public library and looked up all 200 titles in the card catalog to see what they had. Then I started checking books out, at random. I was just going through the list and finding anything that was in. There was no rhyme nor reason to my selection. I couldn't even remember what half of these were about- all I was armed with was a list of titles and authors.

However, within all random acts, there seems to be a pattern.

Here is what I checked out, all at one time:

• A Reliable Wife


• Gatsby's Girl


• 22 Britannia Road


• The Zookeeper's wife (this is the only non-fiction in the bunch)


• Sunflowers


• The Postmistress


• The Bird Sisters


• The Paris Wife

Now because I'm OCD, I see a pattern here, in the reading choices, and in the order in which I should read the works. The pattern didn't become completely clear to me until after I read Gatsby's Girl. Look at the list and see if you can pick it out yourself...

One type of book I like is when a historical figure's life is written in a fictional novel. And because I love The Great Gatsby (sometimes) and I love F. Scott ALL THE TIME, I had to read Gatsby's Girl, a fictional account of Scott's first love, his real love, that sustained him his entire life, with Ginerva King.

The Paris Wife is a fictional account of Hemingway (I don't care what critics say, Hemingway was hot, his writing is prolific and I would've totally been one of his groupies!) and his first love. Sunflowers is a novel about the alleged love/ friendship/ companionship/ relationship between a prostitute and VanGogh. These all fall into the same genre.

Britannia Road, The Bird Sisters, Zookeeper's Wife, and The Postmistress all take place in the same era: 1942-1947, pre, during, and post WWII and they all tie to that.

A Reliable Wife is the only one that doesn't belong to any related group as far as subject matter goes. It's historical, though, taking place in 1908.

Isn't it a weird coincidence that I would randomly gather novels that are all so related in some way? And the relationship gets worse-- you can see how deep my OCD really runs here, folks! (And I am not certifiably crazy- yet!) Now look at the titles themselves!

All of them except 2 allude to a female reference: wife, mistress, girl, sister. See, organizational patterns even in a random library book list!!!! I couldn't even remember what half of the books were about, so the fact that I could select some that were so closely tied to each other, just make me smile.

And because of such, I'm going to have to read these in a particular order. I already read Gatsby's Girl and The Reliable Wife. So of course, The Paris Wife is next, and then The Zookeeper's Wife- got to read all the wife title's together. Then The Bird Sisters- it's the only sister title and it's about WWII. That would lead right into The Postmistress, also the only mistress and also about WWII. That would be the last "woman" type of title but because it's about WWII, I can then read Britannia Road because the subject matter is the same, more WWII.

Had I figured it out sooner I could've started with Sunflowers and then done my "real people written as fiction" all in a row but now vanGogh is out of order because he's not about WWII nor does his book have a womanly moniker in the title. Poor vanGogh, I'm sure if he knew he was regulated to last in my reading order, he'd cut off his other ear at the injustice of it all!

Now you all have a peek into how OCD I really am. I'm going to claim lack of sleep, too much caffeine, not enough caffeine, or something like that to blame this on.

I'm really not so crazy...
Mags