I love my eReader! I have the Kobo Libre2, and I take it practically everywhere. I grew up with this sage advice, and thanks to technology it is even easier to follow it:

Always carry a book with you.

I do a lot of waiting. In the DMV line? Partner got caught behind a gnarly snarl on the interstate for our date and they’re going to be an hour late? Computers down at work? Doing laundry? Arrive to every event super early because your anxiety demands that you do so? Bust out a book and bam, got something to pass the time.

The only downside– if I can call it that– is they act like giant over-ear headphones in use: people come up to you and start a conversation anyway. Fortunately, most of my interactions that interrupt a fascinating paragraph are also book readers, and understand not to take too much of my time. Unless we get caught up with talking about books, of course. Ultimately, I find it a net positive to connect with someone over a mutual passion, despite my initial introverted annoyance.

I’ve recently had once such ultra-friendly waitstaff during a solo date. She asked me what book I was reading, and I may gone on a lengthy spiel about the science fiction I enjoy (the harder, the better– I grew up on Asimov and he basically had two dudes talk about science stuff most of the time). Egghead shit, I guess. But since we both liked scifi, I came away with a recommendation.

"There are women. And there are aliens on this ice planet."

"Can I make it any more obvious?" I laughed, happy to shoehorn a reference to the early 2000s and picking up exactly what she was putting down.

"You might think I’m a freak."

I laughed at that too because… listen y’all. I’m also a freak. To her Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon, I left a rec of my own.

I scrawled on the receipt, Neon Gods (Dark Olympus series) by Katee Robert. Less of an endorsement and more of a "I hope they’ll like it better than I did." It was written well and it frankly, was pretty hot, but I couldn’t shake off those Eight Deadly Words for me, not to mention the few nitpicks I had. (I did make a note to check out how later books in the series; she’s written non-monogamous relationships– if it’s as good as her writing about BDSM consent, I think I’d still have a good time.)

I rarely wander into the romance genre, but I have been trying to read out of my comfort zone. I was more than happy to have this as my "Up Next" on my StoryGraph.