I love to read.  There are two problems with reading:  1) the book ends and 2) my favorite writers can’t write fast enough.  As is the case with most avid readers, I keep track of when my favorite writers have books coming out.  It’s a thrill for me to “open” a new book from a familiar author.  I put the word ‘open’ in quotes because a great deal of my reading is electronic these days.  It’s too easy, though I vastly prefer thumbing pages.

Reading has always been one of the activities that truly relaxes me.  I’ve been escaping into the world of words since I learned to read.  Libraries have long been places of comfort for me.  Book stores beckon.  Not much is more enjoyable for me than to sit down with a book that grabs my attention…unless I’m plunking down on the beach, by a lake, by a pool, with a good book.

What makes a good read for me?  Obviously a good storyline is imperative.  Settings are integral and must be well described.  But for me, characters draw me in.  I need to be able to identify with characters.  I need to want to spend time with the characters.  I need to despise some characters.  Long story short, when any of my emotions is invoked I’m hooked.

Unfortunately there is a downside to most anything.  Books are finite; they end.  I tear through them because I don’t want to put them down and then…game over.  It’s on to the next writer and another book.  However, due to my fast reading speed, I often find myself in the doldrums…that period of time when my preferred writers don’t have anything out there that I haven’t read.  From time to time I find a “new to me” author and then exhaust that person’s collection of work.  Then I’m back in the doldrums.  The good thing is there is always a glimmer on the horizon, that small margin of knowing the next work is in progress.

What prompted this?  Well, I just finished a really good book.  Find something you like and lose yourself in it.