I understand the standoffish attitude towards reading.

Schooling, from elementary through university, creates a grey cloud around the subject. The most common thing I hear around campus is "I have to read..." and it honestly makes me sad. Reading is one my favorite pass times and deserves more positivity.

Now it is reasonable to believe that reading for class is a drag. It is forced, it is usually done with little sleep and it is not particularly on interesting topics. But, reading for classes is not actually reading. I honestly don't care about Socrates babbling about something that happened 5 hundred years ago. I am not some robot that likes to read that stuff either.

You have to choose a book, non-fiction or fiction, of something that actual intrigues you. If you like music you could read Station Eleven or How Music Got Free (if you like nonfiction). If you are interested in business, you could read Something Happened or Small Business. No matter what you are interested in, there is a book that can draw you in.

I understand that for students, especially college students, our free time is quite limited. With classes, sleep, family, jobs, and some sad semblance of a social life, reading is quite low on the priority totem pole. But if you were to put together the time you are needlessly on your phone or watching Netflix, I guarantee you that you have time for at least one chapter, every now and then.

Obviously watching Netflix is much more numbing and requires .01% energy and mind power, but reading a good book is exactly like watching a movie, only you are painting all the pictures. You are the one creating the scenes and colors and characters. I don't know about anyone else, but I like my own imagination way better than some other stranger's imagination. Maybe I am narcissistic that way, but my ideas are always better.

Also, I don't think there is a movie in existence that is better than the book. If someone tries to say "why read the book when you can watch the movie," sock them in the face for me. The amount of detail and exhausting emotion that goes into writing or even reading a book is so far beyond a movie, it makes even the greatest movie look pathetic.

Not to mention, reading can make you smarter. Now that is not to say if you don't read you're not smart (necessarily). BUT, reading increases your creative capacity and vocabulary. Even if you are not into writing complex novels, increased vocabulary can just make you more sophisticated in everyday life.

You know you are reading the right book when you no longer know you are reading. When you look up and the sun has already set and your stomach is rumbling because you haven't eaten in hours. That is how you read.