#BookBlogWriMo Day 4 & 5 - Why Do You Read & Favorite Books From Childhood

Day 4: Why do you read?

This is one of those questions that I just don't know how to answer. It is like why do I breathe? Because it is necessary for my survival. Because we need air to live. That is like books for me. I read because....because books are amazing. Because you can get lost in another world for a bit. Because you can meet new people, different people than you would meet in your daily life. Because I just love reading. Even books I hate, books that make me really angry and upset, I enjoy to a certain extent. My husband and friends have asked me in the past why I continue reading a certain book if it is so bad. If it is making me so angry. I think part of it is it lets me experience emotions I don't normally experience. I am a really laid back, go with the flow kind of person. I am happy 99.9% of the time. I don't get angry very often, but when books are so bad, so stupid, so whatever that they make me angry it is good in a way. It makes me feel something different. I also don't get sad very often, but I love love love sad depressing stories. If they are told well. I used to read Hubert Selby Jr all the time as he is so freaking depressing. I remember going to see Requiem For A Dream and loving it so much because it is just depressing as anything. I love experiencing those emotions because I don't have another way of doing so. I know I am lucky to just be happy all the time, so I appreciate when books can make me feel all the feels. If a book can make me cry than that is an amazing read. It is hard to make me cry, though I will say I get teary eyed occasionally, but to actually make me cry is a feat. I think the only book to do so was Neanderthal Marries Human by Penny Reid. There is a scene at the end that is so touching, it just moves me so much, I actually had tears running down my face. Even months later just thinking about it can get to me. Such a beautiful story, but if I didn't read I wouldn't get to experience any of that. Reading is living for me. I live my life as well, but the people you meet, the attachments you make, the adventures you go on in a great story are just food for my soul. I read because I must. I read because my life would be much emptier without books. I read because reading is life.

Day 5: Favorite childhood books

We had this same prompt last year and instead of typing it all up again I will just link to that post here. I have been a reader for as long as I can remember. My parents always read to me, I was always super excited when I would get books for Christmas or my birthday (though I didn't get books very often), we would go to the library every two weeks and check out new books, I just have always loved reading. I always have had a book with me wherever I go and now with my Kindle it is even easier to read whenever I have a moment. From the little golden books to the American Girls stories to Stephen King I would read everything I could get my hands on. It is interesting though that I haven't read a lot of classics. A lot of books most other people have read, at least before I started writing this blog. I would go to the library and just pick books at random to check out and read. Some were good, some not so good, but I was reading which was the important thing to me. So many books, so little time. It is a great problem to have.