The Whimsical World of Reading By: Kristen Bradish

It's not too hard to guess just by looking at me that I like to read. I don nerdy shirts with book references on them and Harry Potter necklaces to school every day. It would be even more apparent if I wore my reading glasses when I'm supposed to. I don't even know where I put my glasses, which really stinks as I'm 100 pages into a book and get a headache because I'm straining to see the teeny tiny font and think "why would any publishing company think this was a good font size?"
But back to the subject at hand, I'm one of those kids that read for fun. Especially if it's raining outside and you can just flop onto the couch with a good novel you've been waiting for ages to finish. Speaking of rain, the best part is when the weather outside matches what's happening in the book. Picture this: You're plopped down on the sofa reading, and the main character faces a disastrous tragedy. You can hear the mournful songs being played on a loop in your head as the rain comes pouring down outside, exaggerating the sad scenario. But then in the next chapter, they overcome their obstacles and the sun comes streaming in through the clouds triumphantly. Needless to say, reading gets taken to a whole new level when your real and figment worlds blend together to make you feel as if you're in reading in surround sound.
Books expose you to a whole world of characters and settings that you wouldn't commonly encounter on a basic day in the suburbs. I say books, but you don't have to be limited just to novels to experience the joy of reading. The New York Times post exceptional articles on everything from politics and technology to awarding-winning Marvel movies. They have pieces that we catch everyone's attention and you're guaranteed to have learned something from it. Reading is important because it allows you intricate and detailed access to something that you weren't able to witness first handed. The reason I love to read is that it allows you to imagine worlds that you wouldn't even dream of if you hadn't picked up that book. Novels let you escape the real world and be engulfed into alternate dimensions.

I know I've been rattling on for a while now, and I should probably give some life-changing speech about all the benefits of reading as this post winds downs. Dr. Seuss said it best, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." Knowledge is power. But more importantly, reading helps a person finds things out for themselves, not just relying on others to tell them the truth. Why else were all the educated people so rich and powerful in the 1800s? They were able to become wealthy by educating themselves on the best business strategies. The people who could read the bible in church were the ones who decided how to interpret it and lead the faith. Reading is never going to hinder, only expand one's knowledge because everything you read is useful. Even if it doesn't seem so at that moment. Years from now, you could be on a game show and remember a weird fact about deer that comes up as a question. That random factor just got you $1,000.
I would love it if everyone shared my love of reading and we could all be little Einsteins that cure cancer and are able to facetime aliens (because face timing an alien is definitely connected to reading) but being realistic, not everyone loves to read. And I get that, I know some people have trouble staring at black and white and expecting pictures to pop up in their head like a movie. Some just haven't found the right book. I don't really know where this is going. I think I'm trying to politely get to my point about how some people trick you into feeling bad that they're this tortured soul who doesn't have time to read even though you see them playing mindless games on their phones every day. Sorry if I've offended anyone...
Hope this gave you some insight into how great it is to read and maybe you'll even be so inspired as to pick up a book right now and spend the rest of the day reading. Probably not though, considering you're on your computer reading this and why on Earth would anyone put away their computer to read when they have essays due and tests to study for (and online games to play)? Maybe we can compromise on you just reading for the five minutes you would spend playing Tetris or Game Pigeon.