An Intro...

Right then! So I will take this opportunity to welcome myself to the wonderful world of blogging, specifically book blogging. I'm not really a social-networking type, so I don't do the Twitter or the Facebook or the MySpace thing, although I have tried all three. But blogging is a bit different, as it is simply an outlet for my book reviews and maybe various things that go bump in my head without all of the... well, everything else. :) So, about me. I'm currently 27, originally from the humid, sticky South, but I currently live in Northeast PA, where it's not quite so humid or sticky, and there are many odd and interesting (and probably pre-historic) insects, but no cicadas or crickets... I miss them. *sigh* I am gainfully employed with A Major Online Travel Company (and no, I can't get any deals). I have two parents, divorced, each with their new loves, both of whom I like, which is lucky, and I have one brother, who will be getting married in July, thus adding a sister-in-law to the fam. I have tons of cousins and extended family, too, so I won't name them all here. :) I'm in a relationship of 7 years (officially making me a "Commonlaw Wife" in some areas) this past April. The boy part of this duo is called Thomas AKA Wika, and he is an out-of-work-artist. If you're interested in learning more about him or if you want to check out his art, you can visit his site: LookDeep.org. It's chock-full of his art-stuff and his opinions and the random fluff that sometimes floats around in his head. I have two cats: Alfie, who is 4 years old, and generally nicknamed "Monster" or "Monkey", and Indica, who is a 1 1/2 year old girl-cat. She's nosy, and has to be in the center of the action at all times. Here's a picture of the "children"... this was taken about 3 months after we got Indica, and you can tell that Alfie has no problem using her as a pillow. Alrighty... that's enough about the home life. Let's get on to the real reason we're all here, huh? BOOKS! I'm a reader. Always have been and always will be. I learned to read before I started Kindergarten, and I was reading the newspaper by 5. My parents never really censored or limited my reading material, and I'm grateful for that, because it has not only founded a love of reading, but it has helped to shape me into the person I am. I will read just about anything, but my favorites are horror, classics, historical fiction, science-fiction and fantasy. My favorite authors are Stephen King (since childhood) and Jane Austen. In 2008, thanks to StumbleUpon.com (plug), I joined Goodreads.com (plug again) where I found a community of readers with whom I could discuss books! This was way new to me. I'd always been a solitary reader, because very, very few of the people I know in my life love to read as I do, and if they read, they don't generally discuss what they read, so finding a whole online community that shares my love is amazing, to say the least. I read for enjoyment, first of all, but reading also provides a window into other worlds... a window that we can look through to learn about the outside world, or we can climb through to be outside of ourselves for a while. The escapism factor is a huge lure for me when it comes to reading, hence the name of the blog. I hope that I can maybe inspire someone to rediscover the joy of reading, or to maybe pick up a book that they never would have tried... If not, I'm OK with being a dreamer. :) Happy reading!