How do I create a Java string from the contents of a file?

I've been using the idiom below for some time now. And it seems to be the most wide-spread, at least on the sites I've visited.

Is there a better/different way to read a file into a string in Java?

private String readFile(String file) throws IOException {    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader (file));    String line = null;    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();    String ls = System.getProperty("line.separator");    try {        while((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {            stringBuilder.append(line);            stringBuilder.append(ls);        }        return stringBuilder.toString();    } finally {        reader.close();    }}