Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend...inside a dog is too dark to read.

Hey!
Sorry for the awful joke post title...it's one I saw on a Waterstones bag once and it makes me chuckle everytime. As you may have guessed, this post is about books- I'm a total book worm, I always have been. There's little else I enjoy more than snuggling down with a gripping book and losing myself for a few hours! I haven't read much recently due to the increased workload that comes with finishing a degree, but now it's done (I promise to stop mentioning that soon) I'm back on it!

I love all books but ones that feature futuristic populations or dystopian futures are ones that get me most excited- think Hunger Games type adventure reads. I'm a proper geek at heart! Other titles in this genre include Scott Westerfield's 'Uglies' series, James Dashner's Maze Runner trilogy (soon to be a film!) and the brilliant Hav3n by Tom Easton are some that I really enjoy alongside Unwind by Neal Shushterman and Divergent by Veronica Roth.
 I'm also currently into zombie reads, currently working my way through World War Z by Max Brooks in preparation for watching the film with Brad Pitt in! I do always try to read the book before the film.

Alongside these, long time favourites like Harry Potter and the Phillip Pulman trilogy are ones I can read again and again! I think I just like to escape everyday life and live, for a while, somewhere much more exciting where the magic of my childhood is real. Supernatural books are another favourite genre.

For a quick read, if I'm not feeling anything too heavy, chick lit is great- Sophie Kinsella is queen of chick lit in my opinion and I can reread any book in the Shopaholic series a million times. I also love the books she writes as Marian Keyes (her real name) just as much. Another genre I always fall back on is crime/detective type books...I could never ever watch a scary film but murder in the pages of a book is much more manageable! Spitting Devil by Brian Freeman is a very quick read, but so thrilling! The Magpies by Mark Edwards had me up all night determined to finish it and Finding Emma by Steena Holmes is one I struggled to put down.

I studied English Lit in college and loved it, falling in love with the likes of Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby and Oranges are not the only fruit in the process. Carol Ann Duffy is a fantastic writer and her poetry book The world's wife is worth a read- forget your stuffy sonnets this is up to date cutting wit and it will always remind me of such a great time in my life!

People say nothing beats holding a book and turning the pages but I can't say that by using my Kindle I feel I'm missing out! I have a Kindle 4 and adore it. I think the luxury of carrying hundreds of books round in my bag will never get old. Books are so much cheaper on the Amazon store than paying out for paperbacks and take up next to no room when travelling. 14 year old me once took 10 paper backs on a two week holiday and finished them all- using up far too much of my luggage limit than I would want to do now! Kindle solves all these problems. I also have the app on my iPad and iPhone when I want to read on the go, download a fresh book away from wifi connection or simply not want to take my kindle out. Obviously there are other e-readers available but I haven't ever tried any of these so wouldn't know, although I assume they all work on the same principal.

I realise this post has turned into a very self-indulgent ramble so I apologise! Have you read any of these books? do you have any recommendations for me? do you prefer e-readers or actual books?
Let me know!

This is my reading face...

Ha, and on that note...! 

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Make memories, even if they're only memories of losing yourself in a fantasy world for a few hours :)

Love, Abigail xxx