I’ve always been an avid reader, from a young age I’ve read above my “reading level”.  Once I became an adult and moved out of the house reading became a lost past time. It was something I always wanted to do more of but could never find the time.

Having a child brought back the joy that I once new from reading. I had more time to read when she was first born. I was able to pick up all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels for cheap in a yard sale site and tore through them. But once they were done, I slowed down again letting life take preference.

It wasn’t until 2015 when I discovered how accessible digital books were that I was able to revive my lost love fully. The next step was making time for reading. As Khaos grew older, it was impossible to hold an actual book. She would often find it to be the best toy in the house, slapping it out of my hands often to play. I was able to find an app that would read to us, so in her younger years we listened to books often. But as she became more vocal it was harder because she wanted to sing and play, but we couldn’t really listen to a book over that.

In 2016 I made it a goal to make time for reading, I found that reading for an hour plus each evening after I put the child down has greatly increased my reading. I also found a new love in short Cozy Mystery books, so I can read a whole book in an evening, without having the side affect of long books that keep my attention well into the night. You can see that over the years, with each new discovery and attempt it has really helped me raise the number of books I read a year. This year my goal is 100 books, and as of today I am at 62. We’ve also made it a point to go to more local discount book stores. In our house every where you turn there is a stack of books waiting to be read, it’s amusing, but encouraging because it taunts you.

Making More Time

There is a great challenge going around to read more to our kids. It is challenging parents to read 1000 books before Kindergarten. Our daughter has a larger library than we do, and we’ve spent numerous hours since her birth reading to her as much as she wants. There are many studies that show how beneficial it is for children to be read to and see their parents reading. If you want to read more on that, I will list a few articles here.

• Video / Article: Benefits Brain Development
• 10 Reasons to Read to your Child
• Reading is Fundamental
• 1000 Books before Kindergarten

Before I started to dive into Amazons Kindle books section I was reading epubs on my phone. I can’t believe it took me so long to discover this was an option. The Favorite Book Reader is an AMAZING app, and it has a companion app that is the Text to Speech part. It speeds up faster than the Kindles pace so I was able to read through books faster that I could read then at my own pace. Being able to read while doing dishes, or laundry is so awesome. Hands free reading is really where it’s at, now that our daughter plays on her own I can wear headphones in down time or during chores and get through them and a book.

• Favorite Book Reader
• Add Ons (Text to Speech)

For this, you can sign up for many free book mailing lists, that let you know when books go on sale, and where to find them. (They also have kindle specific mailing lists as well) Google is your friend in this, there are also Facebook pages dedicated for alerting the masses when Free books are available. This reader will do all file types, which really perfect.

• The Best Book Deals Newsletters

Many don’t know that you can use the Kindle app on any device, your desktop, cell phone, or tablet. You don’t actually have to own a Kindle to be able to have Kindle Unlimited or just to download Kindle books from Amazon and read them. Amazon has a HUGE selection of Free books, you can go to any category and sort buy price. I have yet not to be able to find a book that peeks my interest for free within their selection. A new feature to the Kindle is Text to Speech. It is under more options.

• Kindle App

Finally, I am in LOVE with Goodreads, this website is like Facebook for readers. Many Authors have commented that the reviews they receive on Goodreads are more honest than the ones on Amazon. They also have a yearly book Challenge, so you can give yourself a goal and monitor your progress. They have the app and the website, plus they synchronize with the Kindle seamlessly so you can update reading progress and reviews. All of their platforms I’ve used have been user friendly and to top it off they have a ton of giveaways. I’ve actually won a book before on Goodreads a few years ago. If you’re on there or decide to join, feel free to friend me! I would love to grow my circle of avid readers!

Tell me your favorite book in the comments, and how you fit reading into your daily routine!