Review: The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect

I'm reviewing both of these books together, but please understand that I will actually gush more about how hysterical I found The Rosie Project.

I read this book in a day. I'm not even joking. I started it on a Friday night and I'd finished it by Saturday evening. I haven't done that with a non-romance book in ages. 

My husband could hear me laughing, and he was in the man cave (aka basement) while I read in our bedroom upstairs.

Don Tillman, the narrator of these books, works as a genetics professor at an Australian university. You learn early on that he's very much into fitness and knows martial arts. I decided he looked like Eric Bana.

Here he is shirtless and holding a book. Excellent.

So, this guy is a genius, but has undiagnosed Asperger's. Think Sheldon Cooper, but not quite as horrible with other human beings. Don't think that means he's more socially adept. He really isn't. But, for instance, he drinks. This automatically put him in my good graces.

Dating doesn't work for him. He manages to scare his dates off. Not because of creepiness, but because he really doesn't know when to stop talking. He also doesn't know when a woman is hitting on him. I won't reveal too many details, since I can't do justice to these scenes. They had me giggling the whole time, though.

His socially ineptitude leads him to thinking that, if he wants to at some point get married, he will have to go about it in a non-traditional manner. He decides that he should employ more scientific methods to his search. He calls this the Wife Project. This project includes a questionnaire prospective candidates need to fill out before he goes on a date with him.

It sounds awful, but Graeme Simsion makes this work. Not because he can make this not awful, but because he really gets you into Don's head. If he couldn't make Don lovable and sympathetic, this book would not work.

Long story short, Rosie Jarman enters Don's life. During their first date, she walks into the restaurant after he's had to make use of his martial arts skills with the security staff. (It's funny. Trust me.) Rosie has her own issues, but social ineptitude does not figure among them. Don and Rosie's courtship takes the reader on a hilarious ride.

The Rosie Project also had really poignant and heartbreaking moments. During one part of the book, I got quite teary. Simsion does a fantastic job of making these characters real and relatable. I'm recommending this book to anyone that might listen.

Also, it's going to be made into a movie. Sweet baby Jesus, I hope they don't mess it up!

I'll mention a little something about The Rosie Effect. So, I think the fact the reader gets the story only from Don's perspective made the story here not work. At some points in the story, I hated Rosie. Don doesn't hate her, by the way, so that's not the problem. But I had to keep stopping to remind myself that I only had Don's side of the story. I didn't want to hate Rosie. I really didn't. But, it got to a point where I wondered what the hell a grown ass woman was doing acting the way she acted.

Anyway! If you're at all like me, you'll read both books because you want to know what happens. And, honestly, The Rosie Project is so much fun, that I'm recommending these despite my reservations about the second book.

Also, here's another picture of how I hope Don looks in the movie:

Yass,

Musings: Should I Buy/Checkout More Books? (Yes. Always.)

I follow a few reading groups on Facebook. Most of them mostly post pretty drawings of pictures of books in all their glorious beauty. Sometimes cats show up in the photos, sometimes dogs, sometimes coffee or tea. (Yes, this seems to be as far as I will interact with strangers, even on social media.)

I often click Like on these and, sometimes, I even share. For instance:

Yeah, that's really what I'm going to write about today. Because you can never have enough books. Not ever.

Right now, on my night table, I have close to thirty books. That's not counting the ones on my bookshelves. And the ones in the dinning room that I haven't put away. Oh, yeah, also, doesn't include my husband's books, which take up quite a few shelves in the basement. This also doesn't include the books I check out of the library.

And you know what? At this very moment, I have at least two other tabs open on my browser that give me access to more books (i.e. buying more books and checking out more books). 

Is this an addiction?

Yes. Probably. Most likely. I'm not sure. I don't really care.

Should I blow my money on alcohol, junk food, or cigarettes? Hmm? Is that what I should do?

See, unlike some addictions (shoes, clothes, cocaine), this one has the potential to make me a better person. 

I can read as much as I want and still function in society. 

In fact, I can read as much as I like without spending another cent. Libraries are wonderful places and I don't know where we would be as a society without them.

You think about that. Right now, we have retail workers that have to deal with so much shit (sometimes, quite literally) and that's with relatively easy access to all kinds of printed media. That's with thousands of years of humans living in settled communities.

Seriously, where would we be without books?

Think about how much time we waste on mindless tasks or about how much money we spend on things that go out of style. I'm totally guilty of both of these. I can't tell you how much clothing I have and I can't account for all the time I've wasted on YouTube watching Buzzfeed videos. Seriously, it's embarrassing.

But! I will never ever feel any kind of embarrassment for the amount of books I own and/or checkout from the library.

Will I ever get through all of them? Of course not. I won't live long enough to read the ones I already have, much less the ones that will come out during my lifetime. (And I do hope I have quite a lot more years ahead of me.)

That doesn't matter. Maybe, if I have children someday, they will inherit all of my books. They will remember me by these books. They will have some insight into who I was and what kind of people I hope they will be. If I have children someday, I hope they can't drive or walk past a library without feeling at least a little bit giddy.

Because, for some of us folks that have little to no athletic prowess or that don't exactly have a desire to go off and sky dive:

And they have given me some of the best highs of my life.

Except wine. Maybe wine. Wine and books=best Friday night ever.

Musings: My (Somewhat) Secret Shame

It started out when I got my eReader for Christmas. A typically story, really. It was just so easy. Just a tap-tap on the green button and it there it was, at no cost whatsoever. And, even better, nobody had to know.

It started my on a path that had no way back: romance novels.

I love reading them. So much so, in fact, I go through them like cookies.

Shown: Figurative representation of how I go through romance novels. Also, of how I eat cookies.

We've all heard these criticism, I'm sure: "I only read nonfiction. Novels are so poorly written nowadays." Or, one of my favorites, "I only read books where I can learn something. Why would you read something just for fun? It's a waste of time." And it only gets worse if you get these folks started on romance novels.

Well, you know what? Nobody should feel ashamed for reading romance or any other genre. Everyone should read what they want to read. Nothing turns off more people to reading than pretentious assholes that act like everyone else is an ignorant peasant if they read a genre said assholes don't respect.

So, to those folks, here's my plebeian response to you:

But I digress.

After I started reading romance novels, I found a whole world out there I had no idea existed. Websites like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books showed me how plenty of smart, educated, and completely well-adjusted women read these books all the time. I didn't think only stupid women read these books. It's just that, back in the day, most of the novels that came out were historical bodice-rippers that had too much of a rapey tone for me to enjoy. And, of course, I judged people who read romance by that misguided preconception.

Sure, some novels out there still have rapey undertones. But so many more of them have some of the strongest female characters in fiction. You can find everything from books where the main characters just hold hands to erotica where anything goes. It took me a bit to find the ones that I truly enjoyed, but find them I did.

During times when I've been under a lot of stress, reading these novels have helped me. I'm one of those people that, more often than not, reads the end of a book early on. I don't really do that with romance novels because I know a happy ending awaits. I don't want the heroine and the hero to have an easy time of it (angst and tortured souls are my romance catnip) but life beats the shit out of you enough on its own. Once in a while, I want to know the story I'm reading ends well.

For a long time, I refused to read romance novel hard copies on mass transit. For incredibly sexist and ignorant reasons, people feel completely free to criticize your reading material and your intellect if you have a romance novel in your hands. I also don't talk about it freely with just anyone. The judgement is real and I just don't want to deal with it.

So, here I am: confessing to anyone that might read this that I enjoy romance novels. I enjoy them frequently and with relish.

I have plenty to say about romance novels and how many people perceive them, but my advice to anyone that likes reading romance, or sci-fi, or fantasy, or whatever the hell else you enjoy, is the following:

Musings: Reading in Spain

Pictured: Carl and Ellie being an awesome couple.

For the first time in the 11 years that my husband and I have been married, we both got to go visit his parents in Madrid for the second year in a row. This meant, of course, that we would go visit some book stores in the city at least twice. Because that's how my husband and I roll. We're just cool like that.

One of the reasons Madrid is one of my favorite cities ever (besides the fact that I haven't really traveled that much and that I met my husband there) is that it is a city of readers. At least, it used to be. I remember taking the metro to university and seeing all these people reading during their commute. Mind you, during rush hour that is a feat of contortionism and determination.

Pictured: I'm pretty sure this is the one in Nuevos Ministerios. I think.

Also, they have libraries in the metro. Bibliometro, which I first saw in the Nuevos Ministerios metro station and I almost fainted with happiness. If DC Metro were even remotely competent, I would ask they get these immediately. (But that is another story.)

They also have Bibliobus, which is a library bus. A library bus, you guys! How can you not love a city with so much access to free reading materials for its residents?

Now, I'm sure there are other cities/communities that have comparable services. The DMV area, though, is not one of them. Thankfully, we have pretty fantastic county library systems here, so I can't complain too much. They have an uphill battle since this is certainly not a society of active readers. (Or is it?)

Which brings me to what got me thinking about writing this post in the first place. Spanish Television (RTVE, by its initials in Spanish), has a program called Página Dos. It's a half hour show all about books. They just started their 9th season with their 300th episode. In the episode, they interviewed a few famous Spanish authors. In one segment, they talk to authors about whether or not they can live exclusively from their writing. Julia Navarro, the author of La Biblia de Barro (The Bible of Clay), among other bestsellers, said that she thinks it's a miracle she now live off her writing since Spain doesn't have as many readers as it should.

What?!?!

Does she mean, like, the country as a whole? Doesn't most of the population in the country live in the big metro areas? So, like, they have access, right? Right???

During this last trip, I did notice that there are less people with hard copies of books. But! There are several things I attributed this to:

1. I did not go on metro during rush hour at all. 
2. I did see quite a few people using e-readers. 
3. Of those on their phones that I spied on, about half were reading a book.

Anyway, my main point (if I have one) is that I always experience some form of culture shock whenever I go to Spain. I've been married to a Spaniard for 11 years, we've been together for 14, and I still run into things I don't understand. They think they don't have enough readers, while I squee internally with glee whenever I'm there and see all of these readers.

Maybe the moral is that everyone, everywhere, should read more?

Review: Paris: The Novel

I have been incredibly lucky, despite what my times of incessant whining might suggest. One of the things I have been blessed enough to have done is to have traveled to Paris. Twice. Both times, I couldn't quite believe I was there. I'm one of those people that plans stuff, expecting that something will happen that will keep me from accomplishing my goal.

But not Paris! I've been to Paris. Twice!

That's me and my best friend, from ProlixMe, at Notre Dame, the first time I went to Paris. It's been a while.

And though I honestly believe that Madrid and Barcelona have nothing to envy modern day Paris, it's still one of my favorite places ever.

So, I've read quite a bit about Paris and stories set in Paris. My fascination with the city led me to pick up Edward Rutherfurd's quite hefty Paris: The Novel. I swear it took me ages to finish. The hardcover version is just over 800 pages long and it doesn't have large print, let me tell you.

The novel overall is not written in a linear fashion. Rutherfurd goes back and forth, with the overarching story being the one that goes in order. That one starts in Belle Epoque Paris, with three families at it's center. All the chapters set further back in the past connect to this story.

Rutherfurd goes back as far as 1261 and goes up to 1967. That's a lot to cover in one book. It felt like a novel with several short stories and/or novella's attached. Thankfully, the first few pages includes a family tree for each of the families covered in the novel. It really helped.

The part of the novel set during WWII got to me the most. You know bad things will happen. Of course they will. But the tragedy still made me tear up. It redeemed the book for me. Some parts went far too slowly and I felt didn't really succeed in showing me the heart of Paris. The lack of set focus on any of the characters made the city the real protagonist of the novel. Sometimes that really came through.

If you have the discipline, I would say this book is worth the effort. I stuck to it and I don't do that with books that don't hold my interest. But, though it's not a complicated read per se, it demands the reader's full attention.

Review: Deep Down Dark

Just in case you missed it, the fifth anniversary of the disaster at the San Jose mine in Copiapó, Chile is here. This will last a while, since the 33 men that were trapped in that mine didn't get out until October 13, though the accident occurred on August 5.

Take a good look at that date range. August 5-October 13. That's 69 days. For 69 days, 33 miners found themselves trapped about 2,300 feet below the ground.

Take a good look at that figure. Two thousand and three hundred feet inside a mountain. To put that into perspective, the tallest twin skyscrapers in the world, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, measure just under 1,500 feet in height each.

In Deep Down Dark: The Untold Story of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free, Héctor Tobar does a fantastic job of reporting what took place before, during, and after the accident that thrust these 33 men and their families into worldwide fame.

Tobar really delves into the complex relationships that existed between all the players in this dramatic event. This means he doesn't sugar coat anything. These men, survivors of the highest order to be sure, are still men. They have flaws and virtues, just like everyone else, including the other players in these dramatic events.



It took me a bit to get through the book because I kept referring back the the pictures of the men to make sure I had the right face to each name. I really wanted to make sure I took in the story as being something that happened to real people, folks that got up one morning thinking they were going to have another ordinary day and found themselves living an extraordinary hell. Unfortunately, that didn't end after they were rescued.

The most heartbreaking part of the story, surprisingly enough, was the aftermath. Everyone thought these guys would be set for life. That's not what happened at all. Some, shockingly, have had to go back to working in the mines.

You think about the fact these men spent 69 days inside a mountain that never stopped rumbling. Really sit and stew in that. Then think about how some had to go back to the work that put them there.

I only have one thing that I didn't like about Tobar's writing: he expresses his own opinion more often than he should, IMHO. Of course, he's within his right, and he's the one that analysed all of the information he collected. Still, sometimes it seemed a little out of place.

Other than that, this is a really good book. Tobar reminds us that, at the heart of it all, this is a human story.

Strong Women in Books...and Four Jerks

So, I haven't been as good about blogging again this time as I would like. Sorry about that. I was taking a programming class that was totally kicking my ass. Basically, it stole all joy out of being on my laptop.

I'm in between classes now, so I figured I should go ahead and take advantage while I can. The class may have been manhandling me, but I still managed to sneak in time to read. I had to go looking through my Goodreads list, since that's how I keep track of what I've read. There are plenty of audiobooks in there right now, but since I commute a total of an hour every day, it adds up. I'll keep my reviews short, kind of like a round robin of what I've been reading/listening to for the last few months.

Books I've read:

• Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown. I had to read this for work. It had confirmed that I self-help books are really not my thing.
• Cuatro Amigos, by David Trueba. I believe this one isn't available in English. I'm pretty sure it's available as an ebook in Spanish, if you're really interested in reading it. A Spanish friend of mine recommended this book to me. She really loved it, saying it was true to life and hysterically funny. I really like this person, so, of course, because I am how I am, I haven't texted her yet to let her know I hated this book. I read it ages ago, and I still can't bring myself to tell her. The book is about four friends that go on a road trip together during their summer vacation. In Spain, folks get a full month or some such off, so they have plenty of time. The narrator is an asshole. His friends are assholes. The narrator's ex-girlfriend is an asshole. No one in this book has enough redeeming qualities for me to enjoy the story. Maybe the dog, but even he was kind of pathetic. It's well written, but that's about all I can say that is positive about this book.
• Murder on the Champ de Mars, by Cara Black. Aimée Leduc is back and she has a baby! This is the 15th (yes, you read that right) book in this series. I've enjoyed all of them. This time around, Aimée has to balance her job with being a single mother. René still helps out more than he should, and Morbier is still trying to keep Aimée out of trouble. This one definitely had quite a cliffhanger/shock ending, so expect to be pissed that the next book doesn't come out until next year.
• As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley. Flavia is back! For those that have been following the series, this book will definitely come across as different from the others. You have to expect this as the series progresses, since Flavia can't be a pre-teen forever. She still has a wicked sense of humor and, of course, she's still brilliant. I know some of the fans didn't like the changes that took place in this one, but I think they work. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
• My Wish List, by Grégoire Delacourt. The only thing I can say definitively about this book is that it's very quick to read. Jocelyne, the story's protagonist, is a middle age woman who has a pretty normal and quiet life, with her husband of over 20 years and two grown children. She wins the lottery--a pretty decently sized prize--and instead of yelling into the four winds that she won, she decides to keep quiet and not cash the ticket right away. A twist in the middle of the book really jarred me. I kind of knew something like that might happen, but still. I recommend it, though I really still don't know what to think.

That's it for the round robin. The next few books I read I wanted to review on their own. Stay tuned.

How I Got Over an Old Prejudice and Learned to Love Audiobooks

Almost two years ago, I switched jobs. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Yes, there are some things that I lost. But the only one I really miss is, unfortunately, also one of the main reasons I wanted out of my old job: the long commute.

My commute, on a good day, was an hour and a half.


How could this possibly ever be a good thing, you ask? Well, thing is, I didn't drive. I took a bus then metro into DC. This meant several things, but lets focus on the positive one: I got to read. For most of my commute, I got to read whatever I wanted. And I read. I read every day on the way in to work and on my way home. And that time ready was the best part of my day.

Well, I switched jobs and now had to drive myself to work. My commute is now 30 minutes each way. I actually get home in time now to hang out with the hubby for more than 20 minutes. But! My reading went down to practically nothing. I was working on getting a certificate, so classes took up a good chunk of my time and, admittedly, I was overwhelmed with the amount of crap around that house that I hadn't gotten around to doing when I had my old job.

This went on for about a year before I finally swallowed my pride and tried audiobooks. I have a finite amount of patience for listening to the same 3 songs over and over again on the radio, so why not try something different? So, I went to the library and checked out a CD copy (yeah, that's right) of A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness.

It took me three weeks to get through the audiobook, since I could only listen in the car. My commute turned from an annoyance to something I could actually enjoy again. I didn't mind as much getting stuck in traffic because that meant I could continue to listen to the story.

Then, I finally took another look at my library's Overdrive page. I had tried using it before and I hadn't found it particularly user-friendly. But now, I found that it's a freaking blessing. I download eBooks into my Nook and audiobooks into my smartphone. You know what that means? I'm listening to a book while I work on one of my endless array of Excel files or project plans.



Having this kind of expanded access to books has gotten me back up to my one-book-a week habit and it's given me the chance to try out genres that I usually ignore.

I have now listened to the all 13 books from A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Percy Jackson series, and of course I finished the All Souls Trilogy that I started with A Discovery of Witches.

My old hang ups about audiobooks now seem completely ridiculous. Yes, the narrator matters. (Just listen to books 3-5 of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Lord, talk about an unfortunate event.) But, most audiobooks I've listened to have really fantastic narrators. And, if you really can't stand the narrator, you could always just stop and check out the book later.

I think it just matters that you have access to books. The whole point of reading, for me, is that I have access to different worlds--that I can dive into lives that I had no idea exist. Basically, reading opens my mind and makes me think differently about the world around me. I'm still me, a creature of habit with a mild case of undiagnosed social anxiety, but books (no matter how I read/listen to them make me feel like Matilda:

The Nell Sweeney Mystery Series

And we got more snow again last week. Hiss! Hiss I say!

Also, to the "gentleman" that keeps plowing the snow to the back of all our cars:

Anyway, so, I got to work from home quite a bit last week. Which means I had more time to spend with the hubby and to read. So I took advantage and finished reading a series I had started about a month ago. I first blogged about it as a guest on ProlixMe, which is my best friend's blog. Alicia and I have known each other for 15 years, and we have a love affair with romance novels, mysteries and Starbucks. Please do check out her block. She's fabulous.

Last night, I finished the last book in the Nell Sweeney mystery series. There are six books in this series: Still Life With Murder, Murder in a Mill Town, Death on Beacon Hill, Murder on Black Friday, Murder in the North End, and Bucket of Ashes.


They were all fun, fast, and thoroughly enjoyable to read. Nell Sweeney is now one of my favorite book heroines. She's smart, loyal, and just an all-around classy bad ass.The relationship between Nell and Will Hewitt, the male protagonist, evolves in a way that feels realistic, especially considering that Will has his share of problems.

When Nell first meets Will, he's sitting in jail accused of murder. This has come as quite a surprise to the Hewitt family, since everyone thought Will had died at Andersonville. Nell works for the Hewitts as a governess to a little girl they adopted. She has Mrs. Hewitt's complete confidence. So, Mrs. Hewitt asks Nell to help clear Will of the murder charge.

Nell's past and Will's present make their relationship a rather complicated one. Still, you are hoping they can both get their shit together so they can finally get together. There is a bit of will-they-or-won't-they, but it never feels forced or done just for the sake of stringing the reader along.

The mysteries in each book definitely hold the reader's attention. They don't go into too much crap that isn't relevant, and P.B. Ryan moves the stories along at a really good pace. I've come to appreciate stories that don't have a lot of padding in them. I'm not against big books, not at all, but there are too many books on my TBR pile to waste my time with stories that just make me think "This needed a brutal editor."

Out of all the books, my favorite was Murder on Beacon Hill. It's heartbreaking, salacious, and just all around delicious. It was the only book that, when they figure out who did it, kind of gave me the chills. It's not particularly original, per se, but it does something fun with an idea that's been done before.

Let's face it, there is nothing new under the sun and it takes some doing to make a story still feel fresh and exciting no matter what your subject.

I haven't lost hope that P.B. Ryan might decide to write another series. She writes romance novels under the name of Patricia Ryan. I will check those out, but, just in case Ms. Ryan sees this: More mysteries! These were so much fun!

On a Cold, Snowy Weekend

I don't live in Boston, so I feel a little guilty complaining about snow. But I'm going to complain anyway. Why? Because I freaking hate shoveling snow. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I hate cleaning it off my car and I hate how it gets the bottom of my pants wet.

What's good about this kind of weekend though? It's the best time to bake and read.

And isn't that just one of the things to really love about winter?

Can't go outside? What better excuse do you have than to sit and read all day? Or perhaps, what other motivator would you need to try a recipe out of that cookbook you have sitting on your shelf?

I've done both this weekend and, besides the second-degree burns on my fingers, it's been delightful.

The book I've been busting out this winter is America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. My husband got it for me with his Barnes and Noble employee discount (I love him so.) and it's one of the best investments we've ever made. I haven't tried as many recipes as I would have liked, but the ones I have tried are absolutely fantastic.

If you follow the instructions, you'll be set. Seriously. I have yet to have a fail for any of the recipes I've tried from this book. My favorite so far has been the chocolate chip cookies. Holy crap, they are just awesome.

My husband's favorite is the lemon pound cake. And you would think pound cake is easy to make, but it really isn't. It's really easy to have it turn out to be a greasy lump of crumbs. This book tells you how to keep that from happening. I also love the fact it's written in a no-nonsense manner. For instance, the book includes tables where they common problems folks might have making a particular dish. In the table for one of the cakes, it has an entry about how to substitute cake flour. Point blank, the book tells you that if you're going to be baking cakes, you need cake flour. It does have a substitute, but just freaking do what they tell you. Buy the goddamn cake flour. You'll love the cake so much, you'll want to make another one. For real, you'll want to make cakes all day long. (By the way, I highly recommend the King Arthur Cake Flour.)

And that's the thing about this book. It's giving me a lot of confidence in the kitchen. I actually enjoy reading the beginning of each chapter because it has such useful information. I can't say enough good things about it.

I could go on and on about America's Test Kitchen--the show on PBS is just awesome--but I won't. Just look up this book, look up their website, and start cooking.

It's Been A While

So its been, oh, I don't know. Over two years? Yeah, I just took a look and it's been well over two years since I've posted anything here.

Have I stopped reading?

No, of course not.

But a lot has happened in the last couple of years. To keep a long story short: I got promoted at my old job in 2012. That's great, yeah? Well, it turned out that what little time I had available outside of the job was taken over by said job. So much so that, honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if my marriage had totally collapsed. I couldn't even take advantage of my stupid-long commute, since most of the time I was working from the minute I got on the bus. Also, I had started taking classes to become a certified database specialist. Apparently, I didn't have enough going on.

In 2013 I got another job. This new job cut my commute down by two-thirds and I work significantly better hours. However, I now drive to work. I don't have a death wish, so I don't read during my drive. It's taken me about a year to finally accept that audio books should be part of my life. 

My reading world, though now a little harder to schedule time for, has greatly expanded. I read on my e-reader at night so I don't bother my husband with a light on. (I tried book lights. I always ended up shifting and the light would end up right in the hubby's face. Not good.) I listen to audio books on my commute and I still read hard copies.

Yes, a lot has happened in the last two years. I'm learning everyday how to be more brave, how to expand my horizons, how to try things that are outside my comfort zone. And you know what? My life is so much better than it used to be.

One of the things in my life that will never change, though, is my love of books. Books have kept me sane during some pretty difficult times. Books have given me the opportunity to get outside of my own head, to dive into other people's lives and problems and triumphs. 

And this is why I had started blogging in the first place. Because I know I'm not the only one that feels this way about books. I know that there are a lot of us out there in this planet and, for that, I'm glad.