Kindle Those Books

I've just purchased my first books for my kindle app on my phone. While this might not seem as a big deal, it really is. I don't purchase books very often. I let the library do it for me. So, if you want my book $, it has to be something extraordinary.

For some background, I've started coming off a fairly deep emotional depression that has hounded me for the past couple of years. I've had two of these in my life. It is nothing I would wish on anyone. One of the things about this latest bout is some shifts in personality and behavior. I've always been a voracious reader. When I lived in Phoenix in the early 90s, I easily read 1500 pages a week. I poured through books. I was very similar when I moved to Illinois. I would bring stacks of books home from the library.

This latest depression is marked by some differences from my first. First, the internet. I have been able to find people that are going through similar things. My coping strategies are different because I have more information. Heck, even knowing that I was depressed was different from my first experience. My book reading dwindled to almost zero. I found it hard to concentrate on even a page. I rarely could make it through a paragraph before I lost interest and moved on. That is a shame too because I have a library that is perfect for me. I love the books I've collected. I also have my work purchase access to online book libraries. For the most part, I couldn't get away from a few internet forums. I wanted that comfort of others, reading through their experiences and trying to make sense of the emotions that they were experiencing. I did a lot of reading, but very little was in paper based books.

As I come out of this, I find that I can have a bit more concentration. I've been able to read a few pages at a time. Considering what I've been like these past years, that is a major accomplishment.

My purchases are formal writings of a few bloggers that I've followed the past few years. One of them has been extraordinary. What he has written on his blog has been outstanding. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the 10 bucks, but I found he was just laid off from his job, so I figure that he has given me at least $10 of enjoyment, so I purchased it.

Much of my time the past two years have been spent on podcasts also. There is such a huge amount of knowledge and personalities out there that the internet can expose us to. Fascinating people and perspectives that I've found have changed my life and my outlook are available to me.

This is kind of a scattershot of a post, I realize. I wanted to write something, and this was handy.