Reading Vacation

I saved up my vacation time this year in order to take the two weeks of the holidays off with my family.  Although I've had to log on and do some work a few times, it's been very nice being home with my family and working on my schedule.  It's also affording me time to read.  Of course I find time to read when I'm working too, but right now I can sit down and devour books since I don't have very many responsibilities.

We have bookshelves in our living room, our master bedroom, both kid's rooms, and the basement.  There isn't one bookshelf in our home that isn't overflowing.  I'm a sucker when it comes to buying books, and my kids know it.  Book fairs at school are basically a free-for-all.  My daughter and I both love to read and spend a great deal of our free-time doing so.  My husband and son are a little less enthusiastic, though they both still read on a fairly regular basis.  My daughter enjoys physical books, although she does most of her reading on the Kindle app because of the convenience.  My son will read on a Kindle if that's his only choice, but he strongly prefers physical books.  I think it might be because of his ADHD that he finds it easier to focus on the story when there aren't any other options competing for his attention.

I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to my reading platform.  As long as there are words strung together in sentences, I'm good.  I do love the look, feel, and smell of a physical book.  I also love the convenience and anonymity of an electronic reader.  I can have multiple books with me when I have my Kindle app on my phone or tablet.  If I happen to finish the book I'm reading while I'm sitting on the bus, I can just start the next one without having to carry multiple books.  I can also read my guilty pleasure books in secret if I'm reading on an electronic reader, rather than giving everyone around me fodder for judgment when I'm reading something that might be written for a younger audience.  Also, books like The Stand are so huge that they're difficult to hold, so that one is physically easier to read on the Kindle app.

I've also spent lots of time with my family.  We've watched some family movies together.  We've had family game nights where my daughter destroyed us all playing Clue Master Detective, and my husband crushed everyone on Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.  I've also played some more with Lightroom.  I think it's going to take some time to get really proficient at it and make the photos look really good, but that's what practice is for.  But overall it has been a reading vacation, and I have to admit, as soon as I finish this blog post, I'm picking up my book again.  I want to finish The Book Thief so I can return it to my mother-in-law since I've had it for an embarrassingly long time.  There's really no better way to spend a cold, snowy winter day, in my humble opinion.