Java, IO read file

protected ArrayList getKmlFromFile(String filename) throws IOException {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));

ArrayList lineList = new ArrayList();
String line = null;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.startsWith( "#" )) {
continue;
}

if (line.trim().equalsIgnoreCase("")) {
continue;
}

lineList.add( line );
}

reader.close();

return lineList;
}