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What’s On Your Nightstand?: Wild Cards

Everyone, it seems, was in a post-you-know-which-trade-show coma last week, so there were fewer comments than usual on this regular Riot feature. But I shall not despair, readers. I know you are out there, and I know you are willing to bare your TBR stacks to the world.

This week my main thought about my own well-stocked stacks has to do with a cross between serendipity and curation, something I can only describe at the moment as the “wild cards” of my night-table book towers. Sometimes I put a book into rotation only to resist it mightily. Maybe I don’t like the cover art. Maybe I hated the author’s last book–or loved the author’s last book, and am afraid I’ll be let down this time around. But sometimes I finally, finally get to that book and absolutely adore it. It would not have been read in the first place were it not for my own odd and highly unmethodical selection process, yet it might also have gotten lost in the book herd (book gaggle? book flight? Does anyone out there have a preferred name for groups of books?).

Like the first ripe peach of summer, such a book tastes sweeter for its timing. Have you had this experience? Tell us about it…and even if you haven’t, tell us what’s in your own TBR pile this week!