Finally I found it

A reason for reading

I don't really need one. A reason, that is. I read as much as is possible while holding down a plethora of jobs, going to school, and being somewhat social on occasion. However, now I can say "no honey, I need to finish this book! I have to write about it for the blog!" I am thankful as always for an understanding husband (although I think me reading gives him more time to watch football and play video games without being accosted).

I've been mildly addicted to books since I was five (that's 21 years now) since I read the Paper Bag Princess all by myself. What probably started as a search for approval and praise (Oh, what a smart girl! Reading all by herself!) quickly became a hobby, an escape (from nothing in particular), and became an identity.

I'm that girl that hides in the bathroom for hours reading when her cousins are visiting. I'm the girl who needs to be physically jostled if I'm in the middle of a good book (or even a mediocre one that has caught my attention). The stock answer for birthdays and Christmas lists when relatives asked my mom or me what I wanted was books. By the time I was 10 (if not younger) that changed to book gift cards, because it became harder and harder to keep track of what I had or what I'd read. Compounding that was The Book Fair, a downtown trade shop where my account consists to this day of traded in Archie Comics and Young Adult fiction (Goosebumps, Christopher Pike, etc.).

I have a soft spot in my heart for supernatural thrillers/romances (however I have yet to read any of the Twilight series), and I spend a good deal of my reading life of late reading Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kelley Armstrong, and Laurell K. Hamilton.

I don't limit myself to this genre, though, and if I have the time to spare (sadly never often enough) at the library I wander up and down the aisles randomly pulling books that look or "feel" interesting off the shelves. It's a rare day that I leave the library with less than 10 books. The librarian has reached a point where she can find my pile on sight, without needing my library card to check my name. This is how I discovered Beat the Reaper and Locke and Key, and I read through both in one sitting, although not all grabs are as successful.

Over the past year or so I've slowly developed a mild obsession with graphic novels (not to the point where I could tell you who the artists are on different stories, but I can usually keep my authors straight). They're easy to see on the library shelves (our library system marks them with a neon green sticker) so I pick them up during my wanderings. Of course, if I like one of my random grabs, then I go online and request anything and everything the author has done that may interest me (hence the giant stack of Joe Hill books sitting on my shelf at home).

http://www.dictionary.com/ defines vagrant as "a person who wanders from place to place; wanderer; rover," and I think that aptly describes my reading habits. I'm always trying to expand into different genres and authors, so please leave me a comment if you have suggestions.

That's me. I have 30 hour road trip this weekend, so I hope to read a new book or two (high on my list of probable reads are Horns by Joe Hill and Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton). With any luck my book blog may contain a blog about an actual book by next week!