“The Internet is so much better. You can just Google everything.”
I cringed as I overheard this at a bookstore. Perhaps, given the full context of the conversation, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded; but I wanted to give the small child with this person a book and show him the magic and wonder that lives on the pages.
Photo Credit: Flickr User austinevan, Creative Commons
It’s more than just books though–it’s about reading. Not a casual read of a tweet, not a cursory glance of a blog post, not an eye scan over the newspaper.
Deep, soak-it-into-your skin reading.
I read because even I, a nearly-off-the-charts extrovert, have been tempted to use the excuse of, “I’m reading a really good book” to miss or leave social situations.
I read because even as I type this, I’m only half here. Half of me is, and has been for the past couple of days, in the world created by the pages of my book. It is a book I have read before–the ink on the pages has not changed since last time I’ve read it, the plot and outcome will remain the same. But I am not at the end yet; I am right in the thick of things with the characters I have come to know and care about. There is an urgency to get to the end I already know, to make sure that my memory has not failed me and all will be well.
I read because there are stories and ideas I would never come up with on my own, places I will never walk with my own feet, worlds that exist in imagination only that I cannot get to any other way.
I read because a fantastic book doesn’t leave me the same when I close it as when I opened it.
I read because I can, and I can’t imagine not.
Til next time…~Brianna!~
p.s. Why do you read? (or not read?)
The Art of Becoming 
I read for the same reasons you do! I love being transported somewhere else and caught up in someone else’s moment. I’ve been changed by so many good books and I feel bad for people who don’t understand this…
Oh, me too! I truly think the world would be a better place if everyone knew the wonders of reading. Thanks for stopping by!
I read because it makes me feel like I am living, not just surviving. I actively engage with the thoughts on the page before me and feel myself being challenged to be more than I usually am in my everyday life. A life without books is no life for me.
I love the way you phrased that, Rebecca–“being challenged to be more than I usually am in my everyday life.” Thanks for sharing!
I bet some kids would wonder why Fahrenheit 451 paints such a bad picture. I’m not sure I would know what to do without book, but I hope I never find out. I taught high school and I know how little kids are reading now.
I hope I never have to live without books as well! Thanks for reading.
i read because it carries me away to another place…a good story can comfort and encourage like nothing else…thanks for sharing!
You’re so right, Nicole. Thanks for stopping by!