There’s nothing better than curling up on a cold winter day with a cup of delicious coffee and a great book. Maybe it’s my bias as a writer, but the written word should not be dead.
Reading a book allows you to open up your imagination and experience things you haven’t before in your own way. At the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card or inspirational poster, it’s the time that allows you to go places you never could have. But you learned that from “Reading Rainbow.”
With all of these amazing books out there that span the last 400 years, why aren’t people reading more?
It’s always the same excuses. “Reading is boring,” “I’d rather just watch TV,” “Ew, who reads?” If you don’t, you’re not utilizing the resources your wonderful brain has given to you.
And it doesn’t have to be a “classic.” Shakespeare is tough, I’d agree. But the books we read for school are read for a reason. They offer life lessons, historical examples, and are chock-full of lots and lots of information.
If you’ve never read “To Kill a Mockingbird,” you’re either a freshman or just an idiot, but that might just be my opinion. I’m someone who’d rather make time to read than watch the “Scary Movie 8” or whatever the hit of the week is.
To anyone who read the Harry Potter series pre-films, they know that what you picture while reading the book is not exactly what the film adaptation shows.
That’s the magic of reading. It lets you create your own world inside your head. That’s why whenever the film industry makes a movie out of a great book, there are the fears that they’ll ruin it. This is another reason I don’t tolerate the “I’ll just wait for the movie” response. Way to defeat the whole purpose of reading.
Those who do not find the time to read never get to learn from experiences of great characters. Books feature monsters like Frankenstein, great heroes like Frodo Baggins, and everyday people like Holden Caulfield, just trying to get by. Adventuring alongside these quirky characters allows for expansion of the mind and provides the ability to relate to something you never would have been exposed to before.
There’s a book out there for everyone. There really is. Four centuries is a great deal of time and a great number of books.
If I could read them all, I probably would. Call me a nerd if you wish, but I appreciate the simple pleasure of getting lost in a really great story.
Between fiction and nonfiction, you can experience anything in any time period you want; all you have to do is put down the remote and pick up a book.
