I made a comment to my mom the other day about how I never really played outside as a little kid, thinking it was a personal preference of mine when I was little. Turns out, she didn’t let me play outside and joked that she would pay for my therapy someday. I laughed because I think it’s what turned me into the book lover I am today.
Ever since I was little, books have been my constant escape. Sad or mad? Pick up whatever I was reading and the tears are absorbed. I’m glad it’s still that escape and can make me feel calmed and out of my own life for a little bit.
- You can stop whenever you want to or need to.
A book I was reading earlier talked about how she wished we had “chapter breaks” in our own lives. Novels have the best quality of starting and ending the story wherever desired. You can leave out the boring details and craft a book to whatever you want it to be. Even though we can’t all have chapter breaks in our real lives, it’s at least nice that a book can, right?
2. You can pick it up wherever.
I always find myself reading the most in places like airplanes or car rides. It’s not that you have to be anti-phone to read books, but sometimes bright screens hurt my eyes and holding a little device like that hurts my hands. It’s nice to have an actual book you can carry with you in any bag and pick up at any time. It’s as though you can enter any world at any time.
3. It ends eventually.
Sometimes it feels like things in our lives are never completed or finished, like there’s never going to be an ending. But the nicest thing about books is that eventually, there’s an ending. You started and finished something, and so did the story that happened in the book. It’s very refreshing to finally finish a long book with a satisfying ending, or even something short and sweet and somewhat predictable. Endings are refreshing.
4. You can go at the speed you want to.
I am quick to lose patience for shows or movies, thinking “GET TO THE POINT!” Books are so much different. Now granted, I don’t like skipping ahead or anything, but because you’re actively reading and not just watching, it’s nice to know that you can go at the pace you want to without having to pause anything or wait for the next episode. The whole story is right there in your hands.
5. You’re going to get the feeling of something relatable.
It’s not always about being #relatable, but books have the tremendous quality of making you think about something in your own life and giving a new perspective. And you don’t have to go back and try to remember what was said that hit you just right, it’s all right there in writing and in print.
6. Books can be completely solitary, but sometimes are even greater with friends.
One of my favorite things in high school was our book club. It sounds nerdy, but there was nothing nerdy about this group of close friends that simply enjoyed reading good books. Once a month, we’d all meet and disregard the organized discussion questions, just blabbing about our own thoughts about it. Most of the times, we disagreed about what an author thought or how it was supposed to be portrayed. It really made us think even more about the book and simply want to read more and more to see what we all had in common. As much as I use reading for my own personal alone time, reading with others can be just as enjoyable.
