National Readathon Day!

As if I needed an excuse to curl up with a good book.
I've been reading voraciously since a young age. On my first trip to the library I came home with 21 books. I couldn't believe they were letting me take home books to read and all I had to do was promise to bring them back when I was done. I knew then that I lived in a great country. I average a trip to the library once a month to this day.
The first chapter book that I fell in love with was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I realized then that books were not just for learning or enjoying, but they could transform your world. I still love that book because I remember how it made me feel. Books have been doing that ever since.
My most impressive accomplishment is that I read The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough in one day. It's 692 pages. That was definitely a situation where I couldn't put it down, so I didn't. I was up early on a Saturday when I started it, and realized sometime in the late afternoon I could get it done in one day, so I kept going. It was late that night when I finished it, and then I couldn't fall asleep afterwards. It was a great day.
Reading can be considered a solitary experience, but I disagree. I'm a member of a few bookclubs, one has been meeting once a month for over 15 years. We've read a lot of books, and enjoyed sharing the experience with each other. Books have given me many joys, and they've also helped me bond with my friends. My Goodreads account doesn't just help me keep track of what I've read and what I want to read, it connects me with even more of my friends. I love seeing what they think about the books I'm reading and finding out what they're reading. I can pick and choose from their recommendations to see what I should tackle next.
Reading has been one of the greatest joys in my life. I love getting lost in a world and then taking a piece of that world back into my own, forever. So on National Readathon Day, I just want to say thank you to the authors of the thousands of books I've read, I can't imagine my life without them.