Looking for Something Specific?

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Adventures in Reading: Kindle Magic

Last year, I struggled to finish reading 20 books.  I would fall aspleep on the train.  I'd forget my books at home.  Lose the book temporarily.

And then once I finished a book, I would inevitably forget to bring the next book with me.  A week, sometimes a month would pass before I was motivated to find the next book.

However, since January I seem to have turned over a new leaf.
I have read 6 books since the beginning of January!  I'm reading book 7 now.

On Goodreads, I always try to set myself a challenge.  Last year, I set it to 20 and just barely managed to hit my goal.
This year I set it to 30, imagining that I would struggle to reach it like last year.
But I'm 4 books ahead!

So what changed?

My brother got me a Kindle for Christmas.
My Kindle in it's new case!

As soon as I finish one of my downloaded books, I can skip straight to the next.  I don't have to wait till I get home or get to the bookstore or library to pick the next.  I don't have to carry multiple books with me, if I'm almost done with one.
It's made my life a lot easier in that sense.

I'm actually really impressed.  It's the best present my brother has ever gotten me!  I love it.

You can adjust the text size and the brightness of the screen to read comfortably

Don't get me wrong. I love paper books.  There's something about how they feel in my hands, how they smell that just gets me.  I will always love paper books, but the Kindle is so very convenient for my commute and I imagine it will be when I'm travelling also.  I'll still be reading paper books.  I have a few sitting there waiting to read.  But those will be my home, lazy Saturday books.  I'll read those at bed time while curled in bed or on the sofa with dim lights and hot tea.  I now have the entire Eragon series (signed I might add!) to reread.  I'll curl up and imagine being in one of my favorite fantasy worlds.

But on my daily train, I'll reach into my bag and pull out my kindle (I got it a case from Amazon so I'm not worried about damaging it).  It's lightweight and I can keep as many books there as I want.  It lives in my bookbag and comes out to charge after weeks of reading (I've charged it 1 1/2 times since getting it for Christmas).

My Kindle cover from Amazon... I already scratched it, but my Kindle is safe!!
I'm really excited to see how many books I read.  I'm trying new authors and different series and things that I may not have bought for myself before (and let's face it, I've been super lazy about getting to the library to borrow books too).

So far I've read:

  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (for the third or fourth time) - Lewis Carroll
  • The Tuscan Child - Rhys Bowen
  • The Pages of Time - Damien Knight
  • Songs of Insurrection - J.C. Kang
  • The Unexpected Gift of Joseph Bridgeman (The Downstream Diaries #1) - Nick Jones 
  • Joseph Bridgeman and the Silver Hunter (The Downstream Diaries #2) - Nick Jones
I really enjoyed these books for different reasons.  I won't individually review them here but I have their individual reviews on Goodreads which is where I keep track of all my reading goals.  I love it since it enables me to track what I'm reading as well as remember what I thought of each book.  When you read a lot, things start to blend so it's nice to be able to look back at my reviews.
I liked all of the books so far this year but a couple did stand out to me.  
My favorites have been the Joseph Bridgeman series.  They were funny and well-thought out. I got a kick out of them.  It's time travel and hilarious and still dramatic and touching. 
The Pages of Time was another time traveler story, but a little more angsty. 
I also really enjoyed The Tuscan Child.  It was more dramatic and in a historical fiction mystery category.  And I loved that it mostly takes place in Tuscany.

I will continue the Songs of Insurrection series but it wasn't my favorite.  I really want to see if the main character is developed more as the series continues. In the first book, she's the weakest link.  But it was super interesting and is the first fantasy book that I've read that utilizes Asian themes. Many fantasy I've read have utilized medieval European characters and themes so this was a really cool and interesting change.

Right now, I'm reading The Last Girl by Joe Hart. So far I'm enjoying it.  I'm almost half way through so I'm very curious to see where it's going.  It's kind of Handmaiden's Tale -esque.  It's a future world in which female births have gone down dramatically so any female child is taken into custody for "protection" and to try to solve the problem.  The main character is interesting and written pretty well.  I won't give away anything else yet...  but I'm enjoying it so far, even though it's more serious than the other books I've read so far.

Have you guys read anything interesting lately?

My list to read is so long but I'm always looking for new suggestions!!


No comments:

Post a Comment