I’ve recently picked up my e-reader again. I have a red Sony one that is about 4.5 years old but which still runs absolutely fine with no hiccups and a very long lasting battery.
I’ve always liked reading. I was a bright child and I read books that were meant for twelve year old kids by the age of six. I’ve always been an avid reader and I can’t really count the amount of books I’ve read. I read all the important ones. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, although not the Silmarillion since it was too much of a hassle. I grew up reading the Harry Potter books and enjoyed the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I have a few mandatory psychology books laying around and I’ve also read the Twilight series.
Then there are the Warcraft lore books and tons and tons of childrens’ books that I’ve read aswell. I had a Virginia Andrews phase and I started to get more into Fantasy after reading some of the books by Maggie Furey.
Fast forward a few years later and I still really enjoy reading mostly Fantasy novels but also Thrillers. I’ve just finished the last book of the Tamuli trilogy by David Eddings and am now starting “The Lies of Locke Lamora”. I find that reading makes me more peaceful than gaming, especially on high stress days or days like today where I’m just exhausted and want to lie down and sleep. I like being transported to another world and feeling like I’m not home for a bit. Books do that and if it’s a good book they do it well.
I have many books ready to read aswell. I have the novels by Patrick Rothfuss, the entire series of the Sword of Truth, the entire series of Percy Jackson and, if I ever feel up to the task, all the 40 odd books in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

For now I tend to do my reading on my days off or in the evening before I go to bed. Due to the lack of background light it’s much easier on my eyes to read the last 30 mins before I fall asleep than look at my phone, tablet, PC or one of my assorted gaming devices. I’ve noticed that I sleep much easier and faster when I read and that my eyes are a lot less irritated. I also believe that reading is good to keep my written language proper, be it in English or in Dutch. Involuntarily you get propper grammar and spelling pumped into your brain and it helps with composing rational sentences later on when writing. It’s why it’s so important for kids to read at least a few books per year. It helps with language development and understanding. I know that it’s not everyone’s forte, nor should it be, but I don’t think I could live in a world without books.

The only thing that bothers me is the price of ebooks. Here in the Netherlands the prices they ask for them tend to be kind of ridiculous. I can buy a paperback for the price of an ebook. For some authors, like Oliver Sacks, I was willing to cough up the prices of his books. Mostly because psychology and neurology are my favourite things in the world and he was an amazing writer. However daring to ask €10 for an ebook and the same price for an actual book? I’m not really sure what they’re thinking.
Ofcourse I know that the authors of the books need to make money. I’m not that dumb. And I’ll gladly pay what I think is fair for a <1MB file that contains the book they’ve written. And that’s not a double digit number. I’m pretty sure that if prices weren’t as steep as they are now they would sell a lot more books and ebooks than they are doing. I know I would buy a ton more.

Anyway. I’m not really working my way through a book list nor do I feel the need to review the books that I’ve read. I just wanted to share a bit of information about what I’m currently doing and it seems that I’m reading more books than I’m playing games. Which is a nice change.