I have to admit that I don’t read much anymore.

It’s hard to find the time to get my nose in a new book, despite any and all of the glowing recommendations it might receive. Since I’m not taking any English courses at the moment, coming in contact with any kind literature that isn’t in one of my biology textbooks has gotten embarrassingly rare.

Movies and TV shows and other easier-to-consume forms of entertainment have become my go-to’s instead, and for that very reason: They’re easy. I can queue up a bunch of YouTube videos or binge a season of a show on the weekends, and all that really takes is pressing ‘Play’ and keeping my eyes open. I don’t even need to keep my eyes on the screen -- I can eat dinner or text a friend or do my homework while my favorite reality show plays in the background, just providing me with company. And it's not some isolated, millennial thing-- this kind of storytelling media is just as easy to consume as a mindless snack.

But what’s also easy is reading a good thriller novel, which is basically the only genre I reach for anymore. It started with "Gone Girl" and then the rest of Gillian Flynn’s work, then "The Kind Worth Killing," and, most recently, "The Girl on the Train," whose movie adaption is currently in theaters. I can devour one in just a few days, sometimes glancing over to the PDF in between classes, sometimes staying up late at night, greedily inhaling each line in the darkness instead of searching for sleep like I should. Missing notes and missing sleep are obvious drawbacks, but each additional page I read just feeds the need to find out what happens. Who killed who? How, and why? And how are they going to get away with it? The genre is a breeding ground for the kind of visceral wrongness that murder and betrayal embody, and that darkness makes it hard to look away.

It’s not like a movie where the pace is set for you and you are to sit there for 2.5 hours, possibly multitasking and not paying attention. With reading, you get to choose how much of the story you want to witness and how quickly, and with a good thriller you’re going to want a lot of it fast. The endings are somehow even better: They're intense and chilling and the feeling you get at the end, where you find yourself sympathizing with a killer, is surreal. Addicting, even.

In a way, it’s easier than watching a movie. Each haunting line and unassuming twist, each unreliable narrator and Hitchcockian villain is another reason to keep going. These authors have a way of writing like a metronome, a constant, unwavering meter that leaves you with no desire to stop. And so you don’t.

And that’s somehow fine, even with all the lost time, because hey-- I just read a real book!