My love of reading has brought so much joy into my life. I can’t think of any one thing that has brought more into my life than reading, though my job is a close second.

Just the act of selecting books feels joyful to me. Walking through the store or library and touching the spines, scrolling through the online listings for digital books, looking at my personal shelves and deciding which to read next.

And then there’s the immersing of myself into the story, becoming a part of the adventure or drama. It’s a type of escape, a brief respite from my everyday life and from the difficulties of the outside world.