In an age where technology is king, it seems as though the art of curling up with a nice book —

and I mean a real book with pages, not your Kindle —

is a lost one. Even though I definitely appreciate technology and like all people my age probably have an unhealthy attachment to it, I still would most likely always pick a book over any of it. When I was younger, I was always the kid that was called a nerd for preferring to read during recess over running around the playground, but it never bothered me. To me, reading has always been and will always be the best escape from the real world. That thought was always the reason why I never let the other kids' teasing get to me. As long as I had my books, they couldn't touch me.

Now as an adult and a college student, I still use reading as a way to get away from the things that are bugging me or stressing me out, even when the thing that is stressing me out happens to be a reading assignment. I'm probably still considered a nerd for this, but at least most people won't say it to my face anymore.

Maybe reading isn't necessarily for everyone, but I will always encourage people to at least try. It's possible that they just haven't found what genre suites them best. For me, my reading patterns are somewhat erratic. Some days I want to read the classics, finding comfort in Jane Austen's words. Other days, I want to read one of the Harry Potter books for what's probably the thousandth time because no matter how old I get, I will never stop loving to pretend magic really is real for a few hours.

So next time you find yourself needing to have your head in anything but reality, I advise you to try a book before watching the same mind-numbing television show again. I guarantee there is a book out there that you either can relate to so much that it makes you feel less alone in the world or it is so far from what you're going through that it helps you forget about it for a little while. I believe that you will find that even if you only have time to do it every few months or so, it will make so much difference in your life.