Barbara Ann Radnofsky consumes books like lemonade on a hot day.

As co-owner of the Brazos Bookstore here, she whirls about the Texas section, biographies and cookbooks. She bought an armful of new material recently, including a news magazine with Gov. Rick Perry on the cover.

"Everybody's got a talent. I can read fast," she said.

But friends and colleagues say Radnofsky, 53, simply brings to reading the same quality she does to much of her life and work: intensity. The Democrat now has trained her vigorous mind on toppling incumbent Attorney General Greg Abbott.

She faces a steep climb. Abbott has raised $10 million in his quest for a third term, and he's a popular Republican in a GOP-dominated state.

Radnofsky is familiar with the odds. In 2006, she worked ferociously to beat Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, but lost by more than 1 million votes.

Vying to become the state's top lawyer is a logical step for Radnofsky, a courtroom bulldog.

She learned as a defense attorney on medical malpractice and corporate cases at the Houston firm Vinson & Elkins, making partner in 1987. She also handled personal injury lawsuits, and retired from the firm when she decided to run for the Senate.

Those in legal circles here describe her as having an almost maniacal devotion to the job.

"One of the most intense competitors I've ever had the pleasure or displeasure of working with," said Houston lawyer Stanley Pfeiffer. "If I ever had to have anyone defend me on something serious, I'd beg her to represent me."

Radnofsky sheds the intensity at home, a two-story prairie-style tucked in a leafy cul-de-sac not far from the home of Bill White, the Democratic candidate for governor.

In the kitchen, her retriever mix Annie ran circles around husband Ed Supkis, a physician. She checked on her ailing mother, Eunice, and described her passion for Dead Sea Scrolls history. The couple has three grown children.

Books are a ready outlet for Radnofsky. She and a handful of partners purchased the independent Brazos Bookstore in 2006 after it was in danger of closing.

She chatted up a book club recently, discussing both her campaign and good reads. Few major nonfiction works come out that she doesn't read – or at least know about.

She often blows through two books a week. She focuses on nonfiction and, of course, politics. She can rattle off long quotes from Abraham Lincoln speeches.

Radnofsky does not hail from a political family. Her father, Matthew, worked at NASA.

But when Hutchison eyed a run for governor in 2006, Radnofsky took interest and immersed herself in the Senate campaign. The move surprised many.

"I said, 'Are you crazy?' " recalled Glen Rosenbaum, a friend and lawyer.

She made more than 600 trips across Texas. But Hutchison, who opted to seek re-election, trounced her. The race was a "tremendous strain for [Radnofsky], both physically and mentally," Rosenbaum said.

This time, Radnofsky said, she has learned lessons. She has kept her foot on the gas, but wants to navigate more smartly.

She travels less. She has hired seasoned Democratic consultants and pollsters, including some who worked for Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008.

And she has researched her opponent's record as though prepping for a big case. Documents and binders fill her home office.

The paper trail, she said, exposes flaws in the attorney general's accounting of child support payments, among other shortcomings. Abbott dismisses such critiques, saying his office has improved child-support collection.

If elected, she pledged to weed out what she believes is fraud and profiteering in the state's insurance,
electricity and natural gas industries.

She also hopes to neutralize an office that she believes has become a tool "for partisan political gain."

Her doggedness might appear quixotic, almost foolhardy, given the political odds. Supporters believe otherwise.

"It would have been easy for Barbara to say, 'Kay Bailey Hutchison is the sitting incumbent and I don't want to run.' Or, 'Greg Abbott is the sitting incumbent and I don't want to run,' " said Jonathan Marsh, a former Vinson & Elkins colleague.

"But Barbara is someone who feels strongly about her values and her vision for Texas. And the fact that she is willing to run speaks to her values."