What and why do I read?

This topic is very hard for me. I love to read. I will read almost anything and everything. When I first learned to read in kindergarten/ first grade I would make my mother read with me at night for hours passed my bedtime. When I was in second grade our class had a contest to see who could read the most "Amelia Bedelia" books in a two week period. My teacher only had about seven of the ten books that had been published. After the first week I had already gone through all seven books so I made my father go out and buy the remaining books. Needless to say, I won the contest. Through out my late elementary and middle school education I loved reading homework when others did not. It was my one part of the day where I could go "somewhere else". I hate to admit it but even textbooks that tend to be dry still hold a bit of interest to me.
These days I tend to read textbooks, historical fiction and non-fiction, and autobiographies/memoirs. I read most textbooks because I have to for classes but also for references if I have questions about something that the Internet misses. As for historical books I will read mostly anything. In my Early Republic class I recently finished a great book on George Washington. It gave a great blow-by-blow about his life and how he was not the "great, selfless" man that we usually see him to be, but a calculated player in politics and government. Even though it was assigned reading I still enjoyed it. Historical fiction is a vice of mine. I know that it is loosely related to real events so I have a reason to legitimately say it is productive. I prefer Phillipa Gregory. I have read most of her books (there are many) and have started watching historical fiction TV shows because of it. For some reason I read it because it interests me even thought it's not based on true events.
 Autobiographies and memoirs have been a favorite of mine since I read my first one in third grade by Ekaterina Gordeva. It was called "My Sergi" and was about how the two Russian figure skaters fell in love. Since then I have read many others including "Angela's Ashes", "The Diary of Anne Frank", and "The Unquiet Mind" just to name a few. The reason why I love these books so much is because they give me a window into another time and life. I am a fly on the wall and no longer Christine the college student. I think I feel that way with most books even the emotionless history books that I have to read as my double major. Reading is just another outlet that I take advantage of.