I used to read all the time in high school. I remember within the second or third week of freshmen year, I was friends with the librarians and they knew my name. I was a fast reader too. 300-400 page books weren’t even a challenge for me, I could finish those in about two or three days. It came to the point that I would be reading books so fast that I had to make some rules for myself. That books I read had to be at least 500 pages and it also had to be a series. Of course I made some exceptions to that rule but for the most part that’s what I followed. This was because once again I read really fast and I just needed to be occupied for more than a couple of days. Doing this kept me occupied for about a week, maybe a week and a half.
The reason why I love reading so much is because I could be engrossed in this whole other world and be taken and transported and go on these adventures with characters. I could feel what they felt and imagine what it would be like to be them. And while I was on this adventure with the characters as soon as it ended I would get sad because it was over. So I would find a new series and new characters to fall in love with.
For me reading was fun, it was something I looked forward to and enjoyed doing. Staying in my room all day immersed in a book was a good day to me. I am a pretty cheap person but spending money on books wasn’t a problem for me. Like you could just leave me in Barnes and Noble all day and I would be happy.
I remember when the Kindle first came out and I was so against the idea. I like owning, feeling and touching the book and being able to fold pages down that I liked. All of that got eliminated with the Kindle. But for one Christmas I was gifted a Kindle Fire and I thought just give it a chance. The books were cheaper and when I brought my first one, I realized it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It definitely wasn’t the same as physically owning a book, but it still wasn’t bad. At the end of the day though I would prefer to own a book.
But once got to college, I had no time whatsoever to read, and that made me really sad. Because I have time to binge watch shows on Netflix but not time to read which I know doesn’t make any sense. Since being in college I can't remember the last time I actually read a book that wasn't a textbook. Just the other day my mom asked me if I still read and all I could do was shake my head no. I miss the way I felt when I would read a book. Just me and the book, completely isolated from the world. I just hope that one day, I can get back to that place.
