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Why You Should Read for Pleasure
Nurturing a love of reading is not easy, but it will improve your life in immeasurable ways.
Try to think of the last time you went into a bookstore or the library and browsed the shelves, just taking in the smell of books and the quiet atmosphere around you. As a kid, I spent so many hours in this paradise, wandering around the stacks like it was my own little world.
For most people, that feeling isn’t very familiar. In a world so attuned to technology — to words, still, but on a computer or phone screen — we rarely spend our free time unplugged from it all, just lazing around with a mug of tea and a book propped open on our laps.
According to a Jenkins Group survey, 42% of college graduates will never read another book. I think that’s a tragedy. As Tyrion in Game of Thrones says, “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”
Why I Read
I learned to read when I was three years old, and I attribute my early love of words to my mother.
When I was an infant, she’d sit by my crib and read Shakespeare out loud to me, her mouth swirling around the complicated and antiquated language. As I grew older, I begged my mom to read me everything: highway signs, restaurant…
