Monday, February 10, 2014

Why I Read

Reading is my solace.  I feel the way about reading the way others feel about music.  I lose myself in it.  And I am transported to other worlds, to the past, to far off places, and anywhere that the author wants to take me.  And I go willingly.  It gets me out of myself, my worries, and my everyday life.  It is how I have an adventure.
I mainly read fiction - young adult, historical, mystery, fantasy, supernatural, steampunk.  Anything that catches my imagination.  My favorite kind of books are the ones that I find myself thinking about when I'm not reading them.
I have a five-month-old son, and that has majorly slowed down the amount of 'me' books that I consume.  But I still get to read - to him.  Stories about dragons, dinosaurs, whosits, princesses, wizards, anything you can think of.  And he loves it!  I'm currently reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to him.
My favorite place to find new books to read is Goodreads.com.  It is also a good place to keep track of books that you have read.  I have enjoyed the invention of ebooks.  I got a Kobo ereader a couple of years ago, and I've been in love ever since.  I like to get my ebooks either from the Kobo website or from my local library's online ebook library.  Most libraries use Overdrive to run their ebook libraries.  There's an app for that.  
I like buying my books from Kobo not just because my reader is a Kobo, but because the format they sell their book in is epub.  Epub can be read from almost any reading device.  All you need is Adobe Digital Reader and you can move your books to anywhere.  I have all of mine backed up on a flash drive.  I still enjoy paper-bound books, but I love the convenience of an ebook.  My purse is a lot lighter - I would always have a book in there in the past, but my ereader lives there now.  Actually that's a lie, my new smart phone has replaced my ereader - I have both the Kobo app and Overdrive app.  I am now never without a book!