by Kathryn R. Burke,
a self-professed biblio-escapist

Reading is just quite possibly the most sinfully private pleasue you can pursue. Put your nose in a book and you can travel to far away, magical places, or be so deeply engrossed in a story you stay up all night, or miss work or school, or whatever you were "supposed" to be doing. You can commit a murder...or solve it. You can be a pilot, a ships's captain (or a buccaneer). You can be a mountain man...or a mountain, for that matter.

There are no commercials or other distractions. There is no need for batteries or other supportive devices. Unless you are addicted to gadgets like the Kendall - and in my opinion, that's not a book, it's a toy. Nope, when it comes to reading, it's just you and what's on that printed page. And, unless you choose to share with someone else what you are reading or why, your reading experience is intensely personal.

Books are the ultimate escape.

My favorite winter pastime is to visit the local library, pick a isle, pick a letter of the alphabet, then going from right to left, select 10 books at a time, with one book from each author, as I move down the line. I can do ten books a week in slow times, five when I'm really busy on othe projects. I always haveseveral going at once: bed book, bathroom book, cooking book, relaxing-with-my-cat book, and a couple more in the car in case I have to wait someplace.