The Great Escape...Into Reading

Are you working on your reading goal for the year? I am!

I joined the Goodreads' Reading Challenge in January. Unsure of how my reading habits were going to be, I decided on a modest 40 book goal. Here it is, now the end of April, and I am currently reading book number 35. Sexy Hubby {SH for short} is on book number 2. No, he isn't participating in the reading challenge. Yes, I am keeping count for him.

With longer days and summer rolling in, I don't think I'll update my goal too much. I'll just increase my reading goal as the year progresses.

What am I reading?
Everything!

Fiction, non-fiction. Memoirs, self-help. Young Adult, Children's. I am an eclectic reader.
I prolonged the reading of King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard in the hope that the wait for War Storm would not be so far off. Sadly, there are still a few weeks until that title drops. In the meantime, I have Cinder, The 4-Hour Workweek, and plenty of others to keep me company.
I'm also reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the minions for our homeschool book club. This is my second time reading it to them, and third time reading it overall. I am not complaining. It is a beautiful story! Once SH and I get to our forever home, I fully plan on creating a wardrobe door to the entrance of our home library. Even if the kids are moved out, living their own lives, I will still have an expansive library that will appeal to all ages. I will be a grandmother, eventually {not too soon I hope}, and I want them to be as in love with reading as I am.

Between Overdrive, Kindle, and Audible, I have no need to leave the comfort of home in search of a new book to escape into. In the midst of technology and ebooks, there is still nothing quite like having a real book in hand. The smell of books, yes I am that weirdo that will smell a new book, the texture, the act of turning pages, I love it! I still buy books and check them out at our local library. There will never be a time in my life when I choose not to browse the local library or bookstores. New or used, if they are readable, they are wonderful!

I have recently started pairing my reading escapes with a bubble bath, and a glass of wine. I splurged and bought a bath pillow, tub tray, and overflow drain cover for those times. Why not? I am not a patient person, so baths were not something I could just soak in. After 5 minutes I would be bored to tears and ready to get out. That is not an escape. Adding a book, a glass of wine, and a comfortable pillow, I can sit in there for 30 minutes easy. That is the perfect amount of time for my limbs to relax and appreciate all that Epsom salts have to offer. Wine helps.

I feel it is worth mentioning how amazing audiobooks are as well. I am currently listening to The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss anytime I get into my car. Before that, I listened to Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden, and Creative Confidence by David and Tom Kelley. I enjoy listening to self-help style books in the car, especially when I know I will need to pause the book when I get where I am headed.
If I am going to listen to an engaging audiobook, I tend to do so when lying in bed at night. On those rare occasions when I just want to lie back and let my mind play the story in my head. That being said, not all audiobooks are created equal. A narrator can make or break an audiobook. An example of this was when SH wanted to read American Gods by Neil Gaiman. He attempted listening to it via audiobook and just could not get into it. A few months later he happened across a discarded copy while deployed. The staff in the area told him to take it, so he did. He loved it! Once he finished reading, he left the book at another stop he made for another person to enjoy. Later, he told me it was a great book, and I should read it {it is on my list} but that the audiobook just did not interest him. I have come across several audiobooks and felt similarly. I dislike any that have more than one narrator and/or sound effects. That is not to say I will stop listening, it is just a preference.

The convenience of ebooks makes reading simple and straightforward. For those that dislike book clutter {I am secretly judging if you are one of those people- who doesn't like book clutter?? 😉 } or taking the time to walk through a library or bookstore in search of their next great book escape, ebooks are ideal. The ability to read on my iPhone or iPad mini allows me to have a story at my fingertips at all times. If I know I will have time, I usually bring a physical book along, but that is not always the case. Idle time going through the car wash? Whip out your phone and read for a few minutes. Breezed through the errands, you planned too quickly before picking up the minions from whatever activity they are doing? Pull up your app to read or listen to a book.

Trying to increase my Vitamin D I started going to the tanning bed. For all of you anti-tanning bed friends out there, I know, I know. I did put on my SPF lotion if that makes you feel any better. Instead of listening to music, or boring myself with idle thoughts while being stuck inside a tube shooting artificial sunlight at my nakedness, I listen to a book. I will even reward myself for that vitamin treatment by sitting in a hydromassage chair for another 10 minutes, still listening to my book. Sounds terrible, I know.

I use reading or listening to a book being read, as an escape and a reward. I escape the dismal days into a story of sunshine and wonder. I reward myself with a story of perseverance and fantasy. Whether I'm stepping into the wardrobe, taking the stairs, fighting alongside the Reds, or holding hands with someone as I retrace the footsteps of their life, I can always find a way to escape the monotony and reward myself with a trip to another world.

What is your greatest escape? Do you have a book that you can read, again and again, without tiring of it?

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Writing, Getting Organized, and Libib!

It's been awhile! I apologize for that. I've been enjoying some essential me time over the last few days. It was much needed and appreciated!


Over that time I have dusted off my beautiful journal. I have had it for a few years now and keeping meaning to write in it more. Unfortunately, it seems as though I clean, or add books to the nightstand, and it gets 'lost,' forgotten for months at a time. Since writing down my thoughts and feelings of the day, as well as my ambitions for the following day, I have noticed remembered how cathartic writing can be. I love writing! It's like having your best friend with you whenever you need them, and you can tell them absolutely anything. Keeping a journal you can do that, and actually tell the journal anything. It isn't there to judge you. It's sole purpose is to give you the space to release all of the pent up emotions you have stored away throughout the day, or week, or month, or forever. Here is the next journal I have my eye on, when/if I get through this one. I love the style. My only wish is that it were refillable.



My motivation has been more obvious since I started writing again. I have actually wanted to get more done. Like the awful catchall built-in bookcase in our living room. I conquered that nightmare this weekend! I am so pleased with how it turned out, and I have more ideas to add some crafty bits to stand out. It is now my Amber's Book Stop Corner. Filled with all my Usborne books, plushies, learning materials, and whatnot. It also helped me to organize the books that were previously held there. Sorting between what we plan to read this year, what we have already read, books to get rid of, books to loan, and just move books that were unnecessary to another bookcase. I packed up our movie memorabilia from the top shelf, that was sad, and stored it away for our next home. I really hope there is more space for those items to be displayed without seeming out of place. 



Movies! We have a serious addiction to movies. I know, I said we have an addiction to books, but it's the same for movies at our house. We love books, movies, and board games! That's why we had to figure out our movie organization deal, quick. Being military there is only so much weight for household goods they will pay for when moving you to another duty location. Yes, you can go over and pay the extra, but who wants to do that? 
Those DVD and Blu-Ray cases take up so much room! When we were nearing 1000 movies, you read that right: 1000 movies, we decided the two bookcases we purchased just for our movies needed to be downsized. We still own the bookcases, they actually house books these days. Shocker, right? We bought a couple DVD binders, big ones, and initially had them all nicely alphabetized and separated from kids movies. That ended quickly. It's a nice idea, in theory, but it's too much work when you buy another movie to have to reorganize the whole movie binder to squeeze in a new title. 

From image search for https://www.libib.com/

Libib to the rescue!


Have you heard of them? I know they have been around for a little while, I only discovered their awesomeness last year. I know friends who use it to keep tabs on what books they have, so as not to buy another copy. I, too, am guilty of this. Guess what? You can also scan, or manually type in, your movies, music, and games too! Libib is a handy tool for anyone who has a ton of books, movies, music, or all three. How does this save us with the movie binder issue? Well, it doesn't help with getting things organized. Suffice it to say I just find an empty slot in the binder and stick the new movie there. Whatever letter section that may be. Libib helps in the sense that I can whip out my phone, or hop on the website at my desk, bring up my list and see what I have. Then at least I know we have it, somewhere. The job of finding the movie normally gets delegated to one of the kiddos. And, at least now we know what we have, at the touch of an app, so we aren't stuck with three copies of Finding Nemo. Don't laugh, at one point we actually HAD three copies of that movie. As wonderful as it is, we didn't need three. 


Not all of our movies are in the DVD binder. Several of our series collections, horror movies, and comic book movies are still in their cases sitting with pride on an easy to reach shelf. Oh, and my Harry Potter movies, and our Star Wars collection. There are just certain ones I can't bring myself to store in the binders. 


If you are looking to get your content organized, I can't say enough good things about Libib! Best of all, it's free! You can pay $5 a month for the pro service, but just for your normal, run of the mill collections, the free service is perfect. You can make notes on your titles also. Loaned a book or movie to someone? Make a note on Libib. This way you know who to bug if they don't return it in a timely fashion. 


So, what did we do with all of our empty DVD cases? At the time we just set them out for the recycling. I have a small stack of them now, after adding movies to the binders, and I'm perusing Pinterest to see if any fun crafts catch my eye.


Anyone have any fun ideas using up the old cases? 



*Disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click and make a purchase.*