BOOK WORM

For some time now, I have wanted to dedicate a post to my love for/obsession with reading. I wasn't much of a reader the first 30 years of my life and it seems that I am making up for it now.

It all started at the Salt Lake City Airport. We were on our way to Niagara Falls for our pre-baby trip and I was browsing in the book store for something fun. By chance I picked up the book Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. From the first few pages I was delightfully hooked and had to force myself not to just sit in our hotel room and read the whole thing there so I would have something to read on the plane ride home. I didn't know books like that existed. Just fun, light, funny romance reads. I had spent my school days reading books that bored me to tears and had a hard time in general starting books that my mother would recommend as favorites.

When we got home I had a baby and there was no reading then. Soon though, I wanted more so I had Brent get me all of the Emily Giffin books that were available at the library. Soon, I was done with those. What was I to do? I started browsing books at Barnes & Noble but finding good books that way was seriously hit and miss. But then, just when I thought all hope of finding another delightful book was lost I discovered the website Goodreads.com. Here on this glorious website was every book ever written with ratings and reviews and links to other books like them. And some of my friends were already members so I could see what they liked. It was awesome! Now the time I spend on books that aren't great is seriously diminished, and if I hate a book I just stop reading it because I know there are more great books in my future.

This month marks one year that I have been charting my reads on that website. So far this year (March to March) I have read 91 books (with 48 of those being just during 2011!) and about 36,000 pages. (A few books I didn't finish but still marked as read to keep track of them, so I can't be sure of the pages.)

I have discovered that my favorite genre is Young Adult Fiction. Honestly, books for grownups are seriously overrated. The YA genre is full of amazingly talented writers who are saying so much with their young characters. The stories of first love never get old to me, and the characters are always growing so much. This doesn't mean that I don't sometimes read books for people my age, but I still always go back to the YA tales. I also like to throw in a classic now and then so that I feel like I am pushing my brain a little from time to time. But let's face it: I read for FUN!

These days I would much rather be reading a book than watching a movie, which is saying something for me. My television watching has gone down a lot too. I would just rather have a book. Slowly I have been collecting my favorite reads, and my wish list grows all the time. I'm still pretty picky though. I finally get why Brent likes to own so many movies. Just seeing my beloved books on the shelf gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Brent was kind enough to help me with this little photo shoot, although he said that if I wanted to be realistic the pictures should be taken at 3 AM in our guest room while I am wearing my PJs. I told him I didn't want realism, I wanted sass.

Of course, when Stella sees a photo shoot going on she cannot just stand by and not participate:

When people find out how much I read they always ask for suggestions. I find it hard to do that though unless I know what people like, and also how lenient they are with language, love scenes, and other factors. If you want to know what I have loved, join Goodreads and become friends with me. You will never be left without an idea of what to read next. However, you can always tell me what you are in the mood for, and I will be happy to share with you a favorite for sure.