Reading Pt. 2

Is there anything worse than when someone tells you about a book they read? Actually, yes, yes there is. When someone insists on telling you about the dream they had last night.

I don’t intend to go into details on every book I’ve ever read. That would be boring and impossible. Let’s keep this high-level.

In summary: I read a lot. And from a wide variety of genres.

I remember reading the Chronicles of Narnia multiple times in late elementary school. In my teen years I read westerns, Star Trek novels, and Lord of the Rings, among others. In college I tended toward longer, epic novels by James Michener and James Clavell, and threw in short stories and classics along the way. After graduation I caught up on all the books I should have read in a literature class. I was a latecomer to Charles Dickens and wonder what I was thinking when I used the Cliff’s Notes on A Tale of Two Cities for a high school book report instead of reading the book itself.

I liked biographies when I was younger, especially of the U.S. Presidents. Now I enjoy bios again and books by Erik Larson with lots of context about significant events and people. I also read history of various kinds, but here’s a strange quirk: I’ve read books about aspects of the Civil War, but I’ve never really dug into it since I fear I’ll become obsessed about the whole thing. I’ve done the same with WWII, although I have to admit I’ve gone a little deeper below the surface.

Now that I read a lot on Kindle Unlimited, I find a lot of books I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Mostly mystery series or SF, with some thrillers in there, too. I’ve discovered several series of 15+ books that I get into and read through in a month or two. The only downside is less time with books in printed form. As long as I’m reading, though, I don’t consider that too big a problem.