When you learn to read you will be born again…and you will never be quite so alone again. – Rumer Godden
Many people fit into one of three categories when it comes to reading:
1. The reader who tells no one that they read. They are ashamed at the prospect of people finding out about their past-time.
2. The reader who tells the world and its mother about their one true love. This reader never leaves the house without a book and posts much too many pictures on Instagram of their bookshelves.
3. They just don’t read. Period.
Personally, I fall into the second category- I am an avid reader and couldn’t imagine my life without reading books. Granted, I probably spend some of my valuable study-time reading, which isn’t helping anyone very much, yet I feel it is aiding me in that very moment more than anything else ever could.
Reading for me is a little something I keep private for myself. It allows me to spend time alone, away from college work, relationships, family and general day-to-day life. I am under no obligation in regards to structure and time, which is invaluable in such a busy college-schedule.
I am somewhat of a ‘myth’ in the University-society. I don’t drink. I’m aware that I’m not the only one who doesn’t drink, who prefers to stay in rather than go to a club, but I’ve been drunk on many other facets of life in the past and one of the main activities that helped me get through this past was reading. It sobered me up to think of all the authors who have went before us, who endured the same hardships we endure today, and persevered.
As Ben Okri said “Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.” Reading increases your awareness of the world around you, empathy, education, tranquillity, togetherness.. but most importantly for me is the fact that reading is a means of Self-Discovery. It is sometimes said that people don’t read books to just to read a story. People read books to learn more about themselves and delve into aspects of their being which had never been previously explored. No matter what you read, you should read it with all of ‘you’ and get to know yourself better in the process.
Reading is beautiful, it’s an art form. If you read, you will understand what I’m talking about and I think this understanding could save you someday.