“I used to love to read until college. It took that joy away, but I’m slowly stealing that joy back.” –Sam Vito
Can you relate? With all the reading, research and papers during the school year, there just never seems to be enough time to settle in and read for fun. In fact, after slogging through 50 pages of a textbook, reading can seem like the very antithesis of fun. But, it doesn’t have to be! Reading can be the best way to escape after a long day. Even if you never liked to read before, it’s never too late to start.
To start with, you have to find the right kind of book. I can’t tell you what to read because I don’t know what you like. I mean, since the idea is to enjoy reading, I probably wouldn’t suggest that you pick up a textbook for the fun of it, but hey, if you enjoy that sort of thing, then go right ahead. Pick a genre you love: mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, true crime, heck, I don’t care if you want to read a cookbook ("Pioneer Woman" has some great stories). There are millions of books to choose from, but it can be just as fun to reread your battered copy of that one book you never get tired of. Just go find a book world that truly interests you.
Pleasure reading is the cheapest way to travel. Can’t afford a plane ticket to Italy? Find "Under the Tuscan Sun". Wish you could go back in time and experience life in Antebellum Georgia? Check out Scarlett O’Hara’s world in "Gone with the Wind." You can live a hundred different lives, all without leaving the comfort of your front porch swing. For that matter, you could read about the history of front porches if that sounds interesting. There are actually books about that. I checked. (Don’t believe me? Click here.) Through reading, you can experience other cultures, walk a mile in others’ shoes and be immersed in impossible worlds. All it takes is a little bit of time and a whole lot of imagination.
The other cool thing about reading is that you can continually learn new things and have fun doing so. That can be a crazy concept, I know, but it’s true! Right now I’m working through all 908 pages of "Les Misérables" and a single paragraph employs such fabulous words as abjectness, ignominy and haggard, not to mention all the details it gives about life in France preceding the French Revolution. Just think of all the vocabulary and fun facts you can pick up from books!
Reading is something both personal and incredibly universal. Everyone brings their own experiences as they read and interact with a text, and in this way, you can make a story your own. No wonder the book is always better than the movie! At the same time, books can inspire conversation and community because two people can find entirely different takeaways between the lines of the book.
You can choose to join a book club or escape in your own little world, but go steal back the joy of reading!
