“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” -Marcus Tullius Cicero
If someone would have showed me this quote a few years ago, I would have thought they were crazy. Books can not be that great? Reading certainly can not be that amazing, can it? I used to hate reading as much as I hate brussel sprouts. But while I still despise brussel sprouts with every fiber of my body, reading has become my lifeline.
Today, this quote is one of my absolute favorites. Books are a way to escape my everyday life and fall into whatever novel I am reading. I can fall in love with Jay Gatsby or survive werewolves and vampires with Bella Swan. When I read, I learn not just about the characters in the story, but about myself as well. I think about my own character inside me and who I want to be.
Books can teach us about ourselves and show us things we never would have dreamed we could see. Katniss Everdeen taught me that you have to believe in yourself if you want to succeed, while Harry Potter taught me that love and friendship are the most powerful magic of all. But in the end, it is not about what you learned; it is about how you use what you discovered to make yourself a better person.
I am often called a “bookworm” and people ask why I love reading so much. Honestly, it is hard to answer them most of the time.
Everyone reads for different reasons, but for me, it is about escaping my world and living in another one for the time being. Some people will never fully understand why we “bookworms” love reading so much, but that is okay. For those of you out there who don’t enjoy books, it is okay. I will never judge others for not sharing the same amount of passion that I do about reading. All I will say is that you are seriously missing out on finding yourself.
Authors write for a purpose, and I believe that purpose is to impact the hearts and lives of their readers. So take some time and pick up a novel or two. Turn the pages and let the author’s words sink in. Sit and think about what you read, because you never know what you could learn about life and more importantly, about yourself.