Reading one of the grimmest things...

It feels comfortable, like a mug of hot chocolate on a cold night, that moment you realise you're in love for the first time or the satisfaction of a job well done. It's the scent of cut green grass on a spring day, the feeling of slipping into bed, crisp fresh sheets welcoming you...That's what sitting down to a brand new book is like to me.

I'm not a fan of reading on my iPad preferring the comfort of pages to turn, that comfortable collection of paper and print that allows me the ability to shut out everything else except the moment, without fear of the battery dying. I can spend hours reading quite easily and am not choosey on the location either: Café's, the park, the outback camping...Hell, I've been known to take a book out hunting with me. I love it, reading I mean, and reading paper books in particular.

I tried reading on my iPad and found I couldn't concentrate. It heated up, I couldn't get a comfortable hold on it and there was no where to put my bookmark when I wanted to take a break. And so, my foray into iPad/eBook reading ended quickly.

I have a lot of books. In fact if books were money I'd be called rich. Yeah, it's cost me a small fortune to amass so many but buying them one at a time means it doesn't hurt so bad. One, then another, and another and so on...Soon, books everywhere and wife complaining about them... 😏

In this image you can see my latest acquisition delivered free of charge to me by Book Depository where I get most of my books now. I used to go to the book shop but the wait for them to order in my book was agonising and so I cut out the middle-man. Besides, I don't shop much so like coming home to a package with my name on it. I got home today and BOOM, there it was...Nice.

Look closely at the book...Do you see the authors name? That's right, it's our own painter of dream maps, the milksweet and razor-sharp @honeydue! I don't know what that title means, but it came from her steemit home page so I guess it means something profound. That's right people, I purchased her book in the real world, with real money. I'm excited!

The back cover reads:

A liar. A lover. A cheat. A man lost to his inner demons. An innocent girl. The devil himself. A ghost. A mother.

Some of the people you will meet along the way belong in darkness, a few of them in light. Much like in life.

But regardless of where they belong, they all deserve to have their stories told...

Are you for real?! How could that NOT sound interesting and engaging, delightfully dark and foreboding. Delicious! I can't wait to start it and also to give her some feedback. OK, let's do the feedback right now because I know it's going to be awesome! @honeydue "that was awesome." 😬 😜

Reading has gotten me through some pretty bad times, well, maybe I mean it has turned moments in my life around and made them better, allowed me somewhere to escape...Midkemia in Magician and other Rift-War-series books by Raymond E. Feist, at other times Middle Earth in a Tolkien book, or the sandbox of the Middle East in a non-fiction book on war, or the holy land on Crusade with Stephen J. Rivele's A booke of Days.

I've met Vlad the Impaler (Dracula), peeked into Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook, fought in World War One trenches of the Western Front, laughed with Terry Prattchet, cried with Alex Haley and his book Roots and saved the day with Jack Reacher...

No matter where I was in reality, a book could take me anywhere, everywhere, and to this day I read with a voracious appetite. I'm passionate about it, as with everything in my life.

I read my first novel at 9 years old - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and my second immediately after - Roots by Alex Haley an intense book on slavery and the author's family history revolving around it. I've read just about everything in between and will continue to do so. I'm 48 and could never even guess at how many books I've read...Close to a couple thousand I'm sure.

My suggestion is to read...That's it, oh and make sure you check out @honeydue on steemit or better still, in print. Buy her book. She promised that she would sign mine one day, if you ask nicely I think she'll do the same for you.

Voltaire, the famous French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher, wrote:

Let us read and let us dance—two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. - Voltaire

He's right isn't he? Of course he is! I dance like an idiot and so I choose not to...I'll read instead. Do you remember your first book, the title, author and how old you were when you read it? Comment below.