Stop me if this sounds familiar: when you were a child, you loved to read. You read everything you could get your hands on. Reading was enjoyable for you, and it was great way to relax and escape from the world around you.

Then came middle school/high school, and you began to not read as much. Whether it was because you were so busy with extracurriculars that you could not find the time to crack open a book or the thought of reading even more after you had already done your homework sickened you, you found that you just didn't find the time to delve into a story as much anymore. Something about it was ruined for you.

As an English major, I began to feel the pressure to start reading "real" books around my junior year of high school. Reading and re-reading Harry Potter for the eighteenth time wasn't going to cut it anymore. It was time to read the classics: Dickens, Joyce, the Brontes, Hemingway. The more confusing it was, the better, because that meant that these were the books smart people read, right?

To prepare to go into college as an English major, I searched for lists of "100 Books Everyone Should Read" and "The Rory Gilmore Reading List," but it was hard to muster up the enthusiasm to actually want to crack open a massive book such as Anna Karenina and get lost in a world that I wasn't even sure if I understood. Frustrated with myself, I stopped reading for enjoyment altogether.

My first English class in college wasn't quite what I expected. Instead of the turtleneck-wearing, black-coffee-drinking stereotypical English majors I expected, everyone looked, well, normal. The books we read in class surprised me even more: contemporary, readable novels by contemporary authors. No dusty volumes, no outdated diction. At first, I was skeptical if what we were reading was 'deep' enough for a college course. However, our class discussions about the texts were always engaging, and we delved more further into the themes than I ever had with any of the classics I had read in high school because we were actually interested in the book.

Sure, the classics are referred to as such for a good reason, and most of them are worth at least attempting once in every lifetime, but don't feel pressured to. Read what you want to read, no matter what anyone else thinks: drugstore romance novels, Nicholas Sparks books, Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey. If you enjoy it, crack open that spine and dive in. I just ordered the entire Series of Unfortunate Events to reread before the Netflix show comes out next year. They are technically young adult novels, but who cares? To me, they are classics.

So read, people! Read to escape, read to explore, read to learn, but most importantly, just read!