Tag Archives: reading

An Unexpected Digital Cleanup (or Finally Getting A New Kindle)

Posted on August 12, 2022 | Comments Off on An Unexpected Digital Cleanup (or Finally Getting A New Kindle)

In June, I made my monthly challenge all about cleaning up my digital clutter. One of the things I never considered decluttering or organizing was my Kindle. I have a lot of e-books and the way I’ve organized them before was by author or book series. And I had no need to change that or go through the books I have and get rid of any. There are so many books I have gotten that I haven’t read in a while or that I haven’t read at all (I like to stock up when there are free e-book sales), but that was fine since I always had enough memory.

But like with so much of the technology I own, I used my Kindle until it was starting to really die and become unusable. My Kindle was almost 9 years old and was not holding a charge for more than a day or two and it could take 15-30 seconds to turn a page. So I knew it was time to finally upgrade and get a new one.

Fortunately, when my Kindle was dying it was about to be Prime Days so I knew I’d be able to get at least a little discount on a new one. I knew I wanted to get a new Paperwhite since that’s what I had before. And I didn’t want anything too crazy or fancy. I only use it to read on. But I do like buying the one that doesn’t put ads on the lock screen, so that is a little extra. I was looking at the different storage options, but then I realized how little storage there was on my old one, so I would be fine with whichever I ordered. So I got a little bit off of the one I ordered and because so many people were ordering Kindles that day, it was backordered and I had to wait over a month for it to get here.

But it did arrive just before my birthday and I was able to get it set up.

But I didn’t realize that I hadn’t updated the software on my old one so the new one looked very different. The way collections were done wasn’t what I was used to and I figured out quickly that I would need to make some changes to how I was used to organizing things.

And as I was figuring out what I wanted to do, I was looking at the books I had and noticed I was missing quite a few. And then it hit me, a lot of books I owned were originally for my Sony e-reader and I had to convert them to work for my old Kindle. But I had no way to convert them again since I didn’t have the original files. So I lost quite a few books when I got a new one.

After I worked on setting up new collections (which are now split into books I’ve read, books I need to read, library loans, books from Kindle Unlimited, and categories like that), I went through my old and new Kindles together and took some notes on what books I was missing. I started a new list on Amazon for e-books I was missing and that I wanted to rebuy when they were on sale. Most of these are books that are a part of a series where some of them made it onto my new Kindle and others did not. But as I was doing this, I also had to think about what books I really cared to get again.

E-books can get expensive which is why I usually get them from the library or Kindle Unlimited now. I don’t remember the last book that I paid for. Even though I do pay for the Kindle Unlimited subscription, I don’t consider those books I bought. And I only think of buying a book if it’s an author I really want to support and that I know I will want to read that book over and over again. It is a good thing I’m not spending money on e-books the way I used to, but it is weird to see how many I bought when I had my Sony e-reader compared to what came over to the new Kindle.

Doing a cleanup of books doesn’t really happen that often for me. I have done cleanups of physical books I own since those take up space, but I don’t think I’ve ever done a cleanup of the digital ones. And while I don’t love that I probably lost a hundred or so books, I know that I can rebuy the ones I really want and it’s ok to not have the ones I rarely read or didn’t worry about losing. It’s a fresh start with the new Kindle, and I know that I’ll be getting a lot of use out of it and will be reading hundreds or thousands of books on it!

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Reading About A Secret Life (or Time For Another Giveaway!)

Posted on February 9, 2021 | 2 comments

I’ve shared several times on here that I’m a big reader and huge book nerd. I love to read so much. I love being able to escape into another world or to learn more about something I don’t know much about. I do read a lot of fiction that tends to be more “chick-lit” style, but I try to keep my reading a bit varied. But I love all books.

And I love books even more when I know the person who wrote them! This hasn’t happened too often, but whenever it does it makes the book even better. And I recently had a chance to read an amazing book written by someone I have gotten to know recently!

I mentioned being on Brianne Davis-Gantt’s podcast in the past. I really enjoyed being on her podcast and I have loved listening to all of her episodes and learning more about her story. She has been so incredibly brave in sharing her sex and love addiction. I personally didn’t know much about this addiction before, but after hearing Brianne share her story, I understand it so much more now.

And I feel like sex and love addiction is likely the closest addiction to food addiction/binge eating disorders. For so many addictions, it’s easy to avoid things for the rest of your life. You don’t have to drink, do drugs, or gamble in order to get through life. I cannot avoid food for the rest of my life. And sex and love addicts have to confront their addiction if they do not want to live isolated and alone for the rest of their lives. The battle to overcome an addiction while facing it every day is something that not a lot of people understand. And even though it’s not quite the same as my issues, hearing Brianne’s story has helped me feel less alone.

So when I heard that Brianne was writing a book about a character overcoming a sex and love addiction, I knew I’d want to read it as soon as it came out! And I was lucky enough to be given an advanced copy of her book “Secrets of a Hollywood Sex & Love Addict” recently!

Brianne based this book on some of her experiences with her addiction and created a beautifully honest story. The main character, Roxanne, is flawed just like we all are. The character sees the flaws in herself and works on finding herself and who she wants to be. It’s not a self-help book, but it does feel like a mix of chick-lit that I normally read and some self-help. There are so many moments in the book that I felt inspired in my own journey with overcoming my eating disorder and felt hopeful that I will have similar breakthroughs in the future.

I already know that I’ll be reading this book again because it was a great read. While I did get lost in the story as I love to with books, I also was learning a lot and taking in so much information that I know I needed to hear. And I know there are more lessons in the book that I didn’t fully take in with the first read. And it seems like all the review’s Brianne has gotten so far have all said very similar things! Whether you are struggling with addiction and don’t want to feel as alone or want to understand what those dealing with addiction go through, this is an incredible book that everyone should read.

And I’m so excited that I was given the chance to give away a signed copy of “Secret Life of a Hollywood Sex & Love Addict”! You have multiple ways you can enter. You can comment on this post, you can follow different accounts on Instagram, and you can tweet about the giveaway! This giveaway is open to everyone 18 and older who lives in the US. I’ll be selecting a winner randomly on the 16th!

So make sure you enter and tell your friends to enter too! I can’t wait to hear what you all think about this awesome book! And good luck everyone in the giveaway!

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Working On My Reading List (or Thankful Again For The Library)

Posted on June 12, 2020 | Comments Off on Working On My Reading List (or Thankful Again For The Library)

When the Black Lives Matter protests started and the idea of working toward becoming anti-racist was talked about more and more, one thing people started to do was to create anti-racism resource lists. I shared links to a few of these lists last week. And I’m grateful that people took the time to create these lists so we could start working on our anti-racism education as soon as possible.

I started to watch video clips that were posted right away. And I quickly read many of the online articles that were shared. Those were easy resources to access and view. But I wanted to make sure I was reading books from the reading lists too. Ideally, I would have bought those books to support those authors. I know that is the best thing to do, but I really don’t have the money right now to do that. So the next best option for me was to get those books from the library.

And I think a lot of people had the same idea as I did because when I went to put myself on the waitlist for “White Fragility” (which was the book many people recommended to start with), I saw that it might be a while before I had a chance to read it.

But I think the library saw how many people wanted to read the e-book and they quickly bought more digital licenses for it. I got an email 2 days after putting myself on hold that the book was available. I am currently finishing another book I was already reading, but this is the next book that I will be reading and I have several friends also reading it that I can discuss things with.

The same day that I got off the waitlist for the book, I saw on social media that the library was posting about how they have added an on-demand social justice book section online.

There are so many books now that are available without having to put yourself on hold. I love that the library did this because not only does it help people read these books as soon as they want to but it prevents people from forgetting that they want to read them if they had to wait weeks or months before they were available. I do hope that reading anti-racism or social justice books isn’t just a trend or fad and people will always want to educate themselves, but I’m scared that in a few months people won’t be as passionate about the issue as they are now. So letting people read those books now (or listen to the audiobook version) is a really good thing.

I haven’t gotten any of the on-demand books yet since I am going to work through one book at a time, but I have been going through the reading lists and either putting myself on the waitlist or adding books to my wish list so I have more than just the ones that are on-demand available to me. I know that I need to read up on how to be anti-racist and I’m glad that the library has so many books for me to choose from.

If I feel like I need to re-read one of the books or take notes in them, I might buy one so I could do that. But for now, I’m just going to use the library for the resources they have for me and not use not being able to buy books as an excuse to not read them.

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Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Posted on February 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Last month, I set a monthly challenge to only read self-help/improvement books. I really was excited about this challenge because I had so many books on my library list that I wanted to read. I thought I’d be able to go through a big chunk of that list and I started the challenge assuming it would be easy to do and I’d get it done.

Then, only a week into the month, I realized that this challenge might not be the right one for me. It was actually stressing me out to not have reading as an escape and I had to read something that wouldn’t make me have to think too much. I wasn’t sure what a new version of the challenge would be, but I was open to exploring other options. But this was before I started to feel horrible so I think my ideas just weren’t realistic for me. All the ideas that I was thinking about trying just didn’t happen.

What I did end up doing was spending one or two days reading a self-help/improvement book after completing a fun book. This ended up being once or twice a week so I did get quite a bit of reading done in the book I started working on. I think part of the struggle was how close to home the book I was reading was hitting me and it was tough to get through. I was taking everything in that I was reading and I had to take some time to let it sit. I didn’t want to start reading another chapter when I was still thinking about what I just read. So only reading a little bit at a time and then taking a break did end up working for me. That just wasn’t what I was planning on doing. But this routine is working for me right now and I plan on continuing it as I work through this book and hopefully as I read a few more books I have on my list.

I’m not declaring last month’s challenge a total fail because I did adjust things as I need them. That’s not something I normally do, but I am proud of myself for realizing I did need to do that in order to have a bit of success.

This month, I’m doing a challenge that I’ve told myself I needed to do for a while. It’s been a long time since my old therapist had me work on a happiness checklist. I’ve made some minor changes to the list, but for the most part, I have the same things on it that I’ve had since the beginning. And that’s just not working for me anymore. I need to take some time to find what makes me happy and what doesn’t and adjust the checklist accordingly. And in the past, when I’ve tried to change up what’s on the checklist, I don’t think I’ve taken enough time.

There are a few things on the list that are easy for me to decide that I want to remove. Either they aren’t important to me anymore or they are things that I don’t feel add to my happiness in life. For example, getting 10,000 steps is currently on my list, but I don’t really care as much about this anymore. I would love to be able to get 10,000 steps a day done, but that’s not always possible. When I’m extremely busy with work or I’m feeling nauseous, I know I won’t get my steps in. And I don’t want to stress about not getting that done just so it can be checked off when I don’t care.

But when it comes to what I want to add to the list, that’s a bit harder for me. There are some things that I think would be good on the list, but I don’t know if I want to have it as something I worry about getting done. So this month, I want to test out a few different ideas to see how doing them regularly affects me (or stresses me) and I also want to take notes on other things that make me happy or bring me joy. I might discover something I didn’t think about having on the list because doing it randomly made me so happy.

I’m not going to rush into making any final decisions about what I want on the list until closer to the end of the month, but I will play around with different list ideas and probably make some mock-up checklists to see if they feel right to me. Right now, I have 10 things on my list, but I don’t know if that is going to stay the same. I don’t know if I want to have way more than 10 or how low I want to go below 10. 10 seems like a good number, but it doesn’t have to stay there if I discover having 9 or 11 on the list works better for me.

Hopefully, at the end of this month, I will have a better idea of what I want my checklist to be. I might not have the final checklist idea, but I want to have at least some adjustments to it to reflect what makes me happy a bit more. And by having a better checklist, I hope that I can find ways to be happier more often and I will find the checklist as useful to me as it was when I started using it.

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Thinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First)

Posted on January 9, 2020 | Comments Off on Thinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First)

I’m only 9 days into the month, but I’m already rethinking the monthly challenge that I set for January. I said that I wanted to have all my reading this month be self-help or self-improvement books. This challenge was something I chose because I realized I was behind in my more serious reading because I was enjoying my fun reading too much. I have gotten books that I know I need to read because they will teach me something I need to know but I just kept putting it off. I didn’t want to have that excuse anymore and I wanted to get through my book list. I knew I probably had enough to read for the month, but I also thought maybe this challenge would help me find more self-help books that I should read.

I really thought this would be a great challenge for me. I knew it might not be easy because I do like to have some fluff reading in my life, but the idea of a challenge is to push myself. And I thought this would be a good push and that I would be able to do it.

But 9 days later, I’m thinking that this might not have been the best challenge for me.

Reading has always been one of the ways I relax and escape. I love getting lost in a good book and getting sucked into a story. It’s something I do every night when I’m getting ready to go to bed. And even though I can read something serious or intense when winding down for the night, it’s not the only thing I want to read. I need to have some of that entertainment and escape from time to time. Sometimes I have a stressful day and all I want to do before going to sleep is to have something easy to read that will calm me down a bit.

And I have had some of those stressful days the past few days. It’s nothing horrible, but I haven’t been calm and relaxed when I was trying to sleep. And I continued to read the self-help book that I started this month as my bedtime reading, but it just was starting to stress me out a bit more. The book isn’t about anything crazy, but it is something that is making me think a lot and that keeps me up later when I already can’t quiet my mind about everything I dealt with during the day. I pushed through when I could, but on Tuesday night I had a bit a breakdown and realized I just needed to switch up my books and read some fluff.

And honestly, reading that fluff that night was exactly what I needed to do. I was able to be a lot calmer as I fell asleep and I slept a lot better that night. I know that things haven’t been completely normal for me lately, but I still felt so guilty that I had already failed my monthly challenge. I hate knowing that I won’t be able to be successful in what I set out to do.

And I let that feeling sit with me for a day before I realized that I didn’t have to make this challenge a fail. I could change what the challenge would be. There’s nothing that says I can’t change the challenge if I realize that this isn’t going to work for me. And this might be a good opportunity to change it to fit what I need the challenge to be. I’m still playing around with what I would want the new version of the challenge to be, but I’m thinking about making a list of the top 3 or 4 self-help books that I want to read this month and making the challenge completing the list. I’m not sure that’s what I want the new challenge to be, but it gives me a starting point for reworking it.

I’m glad that I was able to change my mindset and not think of this as a failure of my monthly challenge but an opportunity to find a better way to challenge myself. But it still bugs me a bit that I wanted to push myself to do something that I knew would be hard and I wasn’t able to do it. I know I’m very competitive with myself and that’s probably something I need to work on. But I can’t help thinking that I can accomplish any goals that are within my control. But I guess it’s a sign of growth that even though I have those feelings that I was still able to reframe it and make the situation a bit more positive.

I’m going to take the rest of this week to figure out what my new version of the monthly challenge will be, but I probably won’t be posting about it again until I do my challenge recap. I don’t think I will need to change it more than once, but I also want to give myself permission to do that if I need to.

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First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

Posted on January 3, 2020 | Comments Off on First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

As I have done for several years, I am using a Volt Planner to work on my goal setting for the year. And that includes the monthly challenges that I’ve been doing every year I’ve had the planner. When I started using it, I think I was a bit more successful with the monthly challenges. Maybe I was doing easier challenges or maybe it was the novelty of it. But in the past year or so, I haven’t been completing them as much as I used to. I don’t know what I can do to change that, but I’m going to try hard to pick challenges that push me but are doable.

And my challenge for December was one that I was able to be successful with. I wanted to spend my month getting prepared for this year. A lot of that meant getting organized because I know a cluttered space makes things more chaotic for me. I did get a lot of organizing done with different spaces in my house. It’s not a completed project, but it’s significantly better than it was before. I also wanted to be in a better mental place for the new year and I feel like I was finally able to release some negative feelings and people from my life. I didn’t do anything special to do that, but I did make a focus on why I was dealing with those feelings and somehow they faded away. Maybe I just needed to acknowledge them and that allowed my brain to know they were there and I didn’t have to think about it more. I still have a few things that bring me down that I want to let go, but just like my organizing, it is a work in progress. But the most important thing is that I got started on the right path and I know it will be better for me.

Going along with the idea of being ready for the year and in a better mental place, my January challenge will be another one that hopefully will put me in a better space. My challenge for this month is to only read self-help and self-improvement books. I usually do a mix of self-help/improvement books with fiction or fluff books. Lately, I’ve been neglecting the non-fiction books and I’ve just been reading things that make me happy or are an escape. But I want to get back into the habit of changing up what I read and I want to catch up on books that I’ve been putting off.

I have several books on my Kindle that are self-help/improvement ones that I bought when they were super cheap and told myself that I would read them soon. So I already have lots of books to choose from. I don’t know if I have enough to read to get through the entire month, but if I need more I know I can get some e-books from the library. I have been putting some books on my wishlist that would be good options. I usually buy these books instead of getting them from the library because I like to take my time reading them. But I think that reasoning isn’t the best one. I can always get something from the library to make sure I like it and then if I want more time with it I can buy it. My book purchasing habit is significantly less than it was before, but I do want to find more ways to save and this is one way. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure all the books I bought are ones that I will like so I’m not too worried that I wasted money.

Since I read every day, I know I’ll get a lot of reading done this month. And since I will only be reading books that fit into this challenge, I feel very good that I can be successful at it. I will need to resist the temptation to read something silly as a break, but maybe I can find a self-help/improvement book that isn’t as serious or intense to read if I need that mental break. But challenging myself to not go easy on me is a part of this challenge that I want to try to do. I know that I can try to do something hard but I want to prove that I can complete what I set out to do. And hopefully, that will give me the boost I need to keep pushing through future challenges if they seem too hard to do.

I’m excited to work through this challenge this month. Not just for proving to myself that I can do it, but also to see what I will learn from what I read. I know that I will learn something from every book I read even if it’s not exactly the perfect book for me or my situation. And those things I learn can only benefit me in my life.

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So Much Entertainment So Little Time (or Scheduling Leisure Time)

Posted on September 26, 2019 | Comments Off on So Much Entertainment So Little Time (or Scheduling Leisure Time)

I have written in the past about how I try to watch at least 1 episode of every show on tv. That used to be a much easier task. While there were a lot of new shows at the beginning of the fall tv season, it was a limited time and I was able to work through all the shows. Now, while the beginning of the fall tv season is when most of the new shows start, it’s not just happening then. And even the time that new shows premiere in the fall is longer. It seems like every week there is something new to watch and it’s becoming harder to stay on top of things.

This year, I think things got crazier for me because my schedule has been busy. I’ve had a lot of other time commitments and other things I go to in the evening. So I’m not home as much to watch tv and I don’t necessarily have time to watch shows between customers as I have before. I know this is a really stupid problem, but it is a problem when I have a way that I prepare for things that I’m used to.

The new tv season really started this week, so there have only been a few days of new shows. But I already feel very behind. I haven’t watched any new shows yet and some of the shows that I watch regularly are still sitting on my DVR. There are some shows that are more of a priority for me to watch the night they come out, so it is helping me decide if there are shows that I might want to stop watching. If I don’t care enough to watch them right away, I probably could just wait until I don’t have other things to watch and catch up on Hulu or Netflix. I do have a bit of hesitation to delete series recordings, but I’m working on being ok with that and not following shows the way I used to.

But it’s not just tv that I’m not catching up on. I love to read and I take advantage of e-books from the library for my Kindle all the time. It’s really helped me cut back on spending because I rarely buy books anymore (but I do recommend that my library buys them so I feel like I’m still supporting authors a bit). I put lots of books on hold because they usually don’t become available all at once. Until they did last week. 6 books I had on hold were available and I downloaded them all because I wanted to see if I could read at least a majority of them. But I don’t know if I’ll have time to read 6 books in 3 weeks.

If it was only the tv scheduling or reading scheduling, I think I could get it all done. But I have to decide what I will do in the evening when I have free time: read or catch up on tv. I’ve been trying to find the balance to do both, but I know it’s not really possible. Every day that I’ve tried to do both I usually don’t really get much of either done or I fall asleep reading or watching tv and then have to pay attention to it a second time.

So I’ve been working on scheduling my tv time and reading time so I set aside the time to do it and not have other things I have to work on. I’m aware how stupid this probably sounds, but since I view watching tv as research, it’s important that I set aside time for it. And while I don’t have to read, it is something that makes me really happy and I feel off when I don’t read at least a little bit each day. And scheduling my entertainment time also makes me find time to relax and not do other work things. It’s so easy for me to not stop working since I work at home. I need to remember to stop work at some point and focus on something else. So scheduling fun time is helping.

I know that once I catch up with the new tv shows and with my library books, there will be more shows to watch and books to read. But hopefully it won’t all come at me at one time so I can spend more time with each thing. But for now, I just have to schedule things so I can get through them and make sure I feel prepared for any auditions I might get for new tv shows and get through at least some of my library books.

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Revisiting Old Characters and Stories (Or A Journey Of Re-Reading Books)

Posted on May 2, 2019 | Comments Off on Revisiting Old Characters and Stories (Or A Journey Of Re-Reading Books)

I have always loved to read. I learned to read at an early age and I was a voracious reader as a kid. I remember reading in bed when I was probably 4 or 5 years old and having a pile of books next to me that I had read that night. I briefly didn’t do much fun reading when I was in college, but I’ve become a huge reader again as an adult. I’m so lucky that the library has free Kindle books because I could easily spend thousands of dollars a year in books.

One of my favorite things is when I discover an author I didn’t know before and I learn that they had an entire book series already or have written lots of books. I love when I find someone new to me and there is an entire collection of books I can work through. It’s so fun when I know the next 5 or 6 books I’ll be reading because I want to read everything that someone has written.

I also love when an author I already know and enjoy has a new book coming out. I usually recommend the books to the library so I will be one of the first ones on the wait list for it. There are a few authors where I buy their books instead of getting them from the library, but I try to limit how many books I buy since they can add up quickly. I know I should support authors I love by buying their books, but I at least am recommending that my library buys the books and I also am supporting the public library system. One day, if I don’t have to worry about money, I will buy all the books I want and I’ll probably go back and buy the books I have already loved. But that isn’t my financial situation right now.

And I have also always enjoyed re-reading books. I like going back to a book I’ve already read and see if there is something different that I pick up that I didn’t notice the first time around. Or I like to see how it connects to me at this point in my life versus when I read it before. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a book you can open to any page and just start reading and know everything you need to know about the story to that point.

Most of the books I read over and over again are books that I read for the first time as an adult. I sometimes will re-read a book within a year and sometimes I wait a bit longer. Sometimes I will read something again just because I don’t have anything else to read at the time, but more often than not I will pick to re-read something and it’s not the only option.

But lately I have gotten into a kick of reading books that I read for the first time when I was younger. They are mainly books that I read as a teenager although there are a few that I think I read for the first time when I was 11 or 12. It’s been a really fun journey going back to these books that I haven’t read in a decade or longer and seeing what I remember. Some books feel so familiar to me that it’s hard to believe that the first time I read them was over half my life ago. It’s crazy how much I remember from those books and how quickly the stories come back to me. It doesn’t bother me that I remember the stories because there are always parts that I forgot about that give me little surprises as I read. And some books have been updated to be more modern and I have to look online to confirm that they have changed the story a bit since the last time I read it.

I’m sure there is something that can be psychoanalyzed about me re-reading books I read when I was growing up. Maybe it is giving me a sense of control because I know what will be coming in the story. Maybe I am wanting to go back to a different version of myself. I know I have changed a lot in the past few years and I am not the same person that I was before. Sometimes it does surprise me how much I’ve changed but I feel like it has all been for the better. But that doesn’t mean that deep down in my mind I am hoping to go back to the old me.

Whatever the reason, I’m getting something out of revisiting these books and stories and it is filling my soul with something that I’ve needed. And thank goodness for the library having all these e-books because it really has made doing this so much easier!

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So Much Reading (or Really Taking Advantage Of The Library)

Posted on August 2, 2018 | Comments Off on So Much Reading (or Really Taking Advantage Of The Library)

As you may have seen from recent posts of mine, things have been a bit weird for me. I’ve been going through some things and I know I’ll be through them soon enough. And fortunately, some of these issues have already started to resolve themselves and things are feeling a bit more normal again. It’s still not totally normal, but it’s so much better than it was just a week ago.

Whenever things are weird for me, I do try to find the moments of normal where I can. I’ve learned in therapy regarding my panic attacks that you focus on what is in front of you and real and hold on to that to get over the panic. And when things are weird, I find the normal things and hold on to those. This time of weirdness seemed like it was endless and I couldn’t find much to hold on to, but I was able to connect more than ever with reading and used that to work through things.

I’ve always been a big reader and I am always reading something. For longer than I would like to admit, I bought a ton of books. Even when I got my first e-reader I bought a lot of e-books since they were pretty inexpensive and way too easy to purchase. When I got my Kindle, I was in the same bad habit with buying books since it’s so simple. But when I got more serious about my financial situation, I realized book spending was the one I needed to cut back on and that’s when I got a new library card so I could take advantage of the library again.

I rarely go to the library near me to get physical books because I do love to read on my Kindle. I still love reading physical books, but my Kindle is really convenient and easy. And I don’t feel like it’s looking at a computer screen since it is a reading only Kindle and not the tablet type (like my iPad is). And the library e-book selection really is great and they have been good at getting the books I recommend. So even if the books I’m looking for are a part of their collection when I’m looking for it that moment, more often than not they will purchase it and then I can get the e-book.

I also love how it’s so easy to get a Kindle book from the library. If I’m in bed and finish a book I can just go to the library website to find a new book and have it sent to my Kindle instantaneously. We live in a world of instant gratification and this is one of the best examples of it. I have gotten close to the borrowing limits from the library, but I haven’t gone over just yet. I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before that happens though.

It’s not always easy for me to find new books to read, but I do look at Kindle recommendations (I just don’t purchase the books) and there are a few different websites that share when new books are released or can recommend books based on other books you’ve liked. Lately I’ve discovered a few new book series that have been fun to read and I’ve been flying through them.

While things have been weird, I have done a ton of reading. It wasn’t just that I was loving what I was reading (although that is a part of it) but it really was just helping me feel centered and away from any issues I had been dealing with. It was my life-preserver for that moment and I think that reading is a pretty healthy one to have compared to what other people might turn to in moments of weirdness. It also helps that right now is the slow time at my work so I have been able to spend a lot of time during my work hours reading as well.

There have only been a few brief times where I wasn’t as big of a reader as I am now. My entire childhood was surrounded by books. So many life moments are remembered by what books I was reading at that time. In college I still read, but it wasn’t something I did every day and I think that had to do with how much reading I had to do in college. But in my last semester of college my class load was pretty much only 1 day a week so I had lots of free time and got back into reading. And since then my love of reading has only gotten stronger and stronger.

But now, I feel like my reading obsession is the strongest it’s ever been. I’ve found a new love for reading beyond just the act of reading. It helped me feel sane when I know that things could have been worse for me. It is my greatest act of self-care and I don’t know if I really considered reading self-care the way I do now. I’ve always considered it a habit that makes me happy and have it on my happiness checklist, but that feels like something different to me. I’ve never considered how good for my mental health reading could be and I’m so glad that I had it to turn to when I was struggling recently.

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Having A Book Nerd Moment (or The Little Things That Make Me Smile)

Posted on June 7, 2018 | Comments Off on Having A Book Nerd Moment (or The Little Things That Make Me Smile)

I’ve shared on here before about how I am a giant book nerd. I’ve loved to read my entire life and I never seem to be able to get enough reading. Thank goodness for the library because if I had to pay for all the books I read I would be spending thousands of dollars a year. I don’t read as much as I would like to every day, but I do read every single day at least in the evening before bed. But there are also days where I spend the entire day lost in books.

Because I read all the time, I read lots of books every year. Some of them I read and forget about because they aren’t super memorable, but fortunately most of the books I find are ones that connect to me somehow and they stick with me. I revisit books I’ve read previously from time to time because I always find something different in them. I also love the comfort I get from reading a familiar book when I’m not having the best day.

I do have some fun stories about book twists that have shocked me or books that made me cry when I wasn’t expecting it. But most of them are normal stories. But there has been one story that sticks out in my head when I think about funny stories about reading a book.

Years ago, when trying to find a book to read I would wander bookstores and find books that stick out to me. I literally was judging books by their covers, but it seemed to always lead me to fun books that I might not have picked out otherwise. I could spend hours looking at all the books and taking notes on what I wanted to read. And one of the books I found because the cover looked interesting was “Body Movers” by Stephanie Bond.

I brought this book with me to Tahoe to visit my parents (back when I had to pack my suitcase with actual books instead of having my Kindle) and I very clearly remember reading that book on that trip. I remember being close to the end of the book and reading on the couch while my dad was reading next to me. And without giving much away about the book, it ended on a cliffhanger and I was not expecting that. I had no idea that this was the first book in what was going to be a series and I couldn’t believe that I would have to wait to read the next one. I think it was about a year until the next book would be released.

I’m sure I looked crazy to my dad because I was ranting about how it sucked that this book was so awesome and then it ended on a cliffhanger. I couldn’t get over it and as soon as the next book came out I immediately got it and read it. Then I got the next one when it came out and the next one. Until last week, there were 9 books in the series (there were 8 main books and then a novella that fit into the story but wasn’t furthering the plot). And every time a new book came out, I was prepared that there would be twists and cliffhangers but that made me happy because then I knew there would be another book coming out.

Last week, the most recent book in the series came out and of course I read it right away. I was sucked back into the story right away and it was difficult to put the book down. Even that night when I was reading at bedtime I couldn’t stop reading. I really try to not stay up all night reading, but sometimes I can’t help it. And this book was one that was keeping me up.

And even though I had read so many other books in this series, when this book ended on a huge twist I was shocked. It was after 1am and I screamed out loud “are you kidding me?!?!?”. Of course, I immediately worried that I woke up one of my neighbors because I screamed pretty loudly. But I think everyone who lives near me was sound asleep and I didn’t wake them. I did have a good laugh because of how strong my reaction was. That’s clearly a sign of how good this book series is and how connected I am to it.

I couldn’t believe the twist and now I want to go back and reread all the previous books because I can read them with a different perspective on the story. And of course now I’m just waiting for the next book in the series to come out to see what happens next. While reading is one of my favorite things, to have a reaction like I did with these books is special and unique. And that just makes me so happy!

 

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