Getting lost in a good book

I've been reading more lately than I have in a long time. I usually find excuses as to why I should be doing something else, but the truth is that a good book revitalizes me. It helps my own creativity flow better and just in general relaxes me.

I read across multiple genres, being drawn in more by a good story and enticing characters than by the world or time they occur in. Just this week I've read a couple of eroticas, a contemporary romance, an historical romance and part of a fantasy. I tend not to read in whatever genre I'm currently writing, so I've got several urban fantasy and paranormal books sitting on the back burner waiting for me to finish this book and start on the next project I have in mind.

I was always that kid that had her nose in a book. I annoyed my friends on more than one occasion by sitting under a tree on the playground to finish whatever tale I'd started reading instead of playing with them. I'm still that way to some extent when we go camping or to the lake, I've always got at least one book on my person.

One of my favorite things is to get so completely immersed in a book that I lose track of time, that I can't stand to put it down because I have to know what happens to the characters. Even if I know they'll get their happily ever after, I have to know how they get there. And absolutely nothing makes me happier than someone writing to tell me they were up until the wee hours reading my book because they couldn't put it down or telling me they have book hangover because the story's over.

So what are your favorite books to get lost in? What author's always seem to suck you in and leave you wanting more?

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Kathleen Collins is author of the Realm Walker series. She is currently at work on the next book and can be found at her website or, more commonly, on facebook