Over the past few years I’ve noticed that more and more people my age and younger are becoming less interested in reading actual books but more interested in reading short articles or blog posts online. This depresses me immensely as I wish to write novels in the future and always have enjoyed reading from a true, paper-made book in my hands. Yes, I sound like a grandmother right now, but seriously think about it. Everyone is interested in short mind-numbingly stupid celebrity posts more than interesting fictional pieces.

I even dislike the idea of reading books just digitally on my phone or computer. It just does not seem as real or fun as actually reading a book before going to bed and being able to fold it closed or just smells that nice, old book smell. Words on paper mean more than digital words you read online because it feels more real.

At least to me.

As a kid, reading was my favorite thing to ever do. I would always finish my day with a nice book in bed and I remember my mother telling me how much she had to take a half-finished book from off of my face once I had fallen asleep. Because reading real books is something so important to my childhood, it is very hard for me to accept its extinction in the current world with everyone preferring those digital novels.

Even now I have a large bookshelf in my bedroom filled to the brim with true books - newer and older ones - and I love them still. Yes, I do not have the time I used to as a kid to read a book every night, or truthfully a book a month, but I still love them so much. If my life right now was not as busy or distracting for me as it is, I would have been able to continue to reading streak as I did when I was younger.

I just wish that people my age still preferred paper books in your hands instead of having technology take all of the fun. I love technology - I do. I love my iPhone, my MacBook, and I love the idea of these things growing and becoming more evolved. Although, I also would never give up true paperback novels for these things and definitely would not prefer reading my favorite novels through an iPad or Kindle over the original book.

I have a handful of friends, like me, who prefer reading books the original way, but there are a lot of people I know who don't even like reading at all let alone in paperback formatting. This frightens me more than reading just occurring digitally, as if people begin to not enjoy the simple things like reading books then that can disappear all in itself. I really don't want that. Not because I want to be an author and an editor, but because reading is such an enormous part of my life that if it were to become completely extinct and ignored in the world... everything would change. Everyone would become less cultured and less interested and curious. People would rely more on word of mouth than written truth.

So, books should stay as they always have been and people should learn to enjoy reading books like they used to. Give reading books a try one more time. Read paperbacks and hardcovers, and put down that eBook.