Why Read?

“Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself.... You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.”  


Angela Carter (1940–1992), British author.




Why read? Why should I read the book before it comes out in cinema? Why is settling down with a good book better then sitting on the couch watching The Simpson’s reruns?   I have often pondered the merits of reading, but you don’t realise the advantages until you actually begin reading. Until I unlocked my first real book I couldn’t have dreamed of the wonders and marvels that it opens to you. It’s just that when you do read you discover how exquisite the delights of reading are.




Books can transport you to different places, worlds, times, people, anywhere you can imagine without leaving your own room.


Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are. Picking up a book is like picking up a world that is waiting to be explored. Whether fiction or fact they can take you away with them, engulf you and make you apart of their environment. They can scare the wits out of you, make you cry, make you laugh, the more pages you read the harder it is to shut the book. Every book is a great adventure. Within the pages lie stories untold, places never ventured and new people to meet. No book is alike, no story the same.




Reading is not strange.   It seems that many people do not want to read or do not think it is necessary.   They believe that people who read are “nerds”, “geeks”, or ‘bookworms’. This is not true.   I read because it is something that passes the time peacefully and it alleviates ignorance.   Reading for fun is normal; it improves a person’s imagination, vocabulary, and knowledge without the person even knowing it. Reading forms the staple of traditional education.


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