why read?

110511. saturday.

i am currently watching a show which has nicholas sparks as guest. he shares his stories on  how he got his first break as a writer, how he writes his novels, and why he writes in the first place. haha! everything is from a writer's perspective. 

now, i got inspired to blog. this time i wanna write from a reader's perspective. 

more and more people are beginning to read novels and short stories. but still, there are far more people who don't understand why readers are hooked in reading. 


i wanna share my countless reasons why i read and why i will never stop reading.

as for me, i read to escape, well, to be some place else. when you read, at least you forget about everything for a moment. no worries, no problems, just the novel. it's like the book takes you away in a place where only the two of you are there. reading helps you to somehow not think of the other things. you won't have to be disturbed by other thoughts for awhile. 


i read so that i can go to places. you know, when you read, you are brought to a different dimension, in a dimension where you become a voyeur to the lives of the characters you follow. at one point, you get to have a feel of what it's like to be in that particular place or situation, may it be a place you haven't been to or an incident you haven't encountered yet. 


i read to know. when you are a reader, you are open to an endless pot of knowledge. first and foremost, you will have a wider vocabulary. you will learn so much from encountering unfamiliar words, learning about cross-cultural differences, meeting different people, understanding job descriptions, to even getting a bit of idea about some technical things on different branches of study, and a whole lot more. you see, there're a lot of opportunities in learning you'll get as you read. this is among the things that make me love reading all the more. every time i learn something, even if it is the smallest and simplest thing, i already feel like i am enriched and nourished. it's like every new detail learned is my own dose of supplement for the mind.


i read to feel. you'll laugh, cry, lament, hate, curse, and most of all, you'll love as you read. you'll feel thrill, excitement, sadness,  fulfillment, envy, or happiness depending on what kind of novel you're reading. what's best about novels and stories is the fact that, most of the time, a novel will let you feel not just one emotion, but three, four, or more. but, there will always, always be one emotion that will out-stand all other emotions, again it depends on what genre you're reading. sometimes, novels let you feel something you haven't felt yet. at that one point, a novel can make you fall in love for the characters though they are just make-believe. some would call it fantasizing, but i would rather call it 'feeling for a moment.' by letting you feel something you haven't felt before, you'll have an understanding why people act like such whenever they feel that certain feeling.

i read to think. each novel has many ways of making you think. some novels will leave you hanging in the end of them 'coz they want to move your mind to put your own ending or to just keep you thinking of what could have happened to the characters. some will not let you stop thinking until you reach the solution of the story. and sometimes, especially those suspense novels, they will just make you think in every chapter. you'll be surprised in every page's revelation. that's the magic these novels got that they won't make you drop them the moment you open them.

as for me, i read because every book teaches me a lesson, lessons i'll sooner or later apply in my life. every book is a different story, every book has a different lesson. i read because i wanna be enlightened. i mean, you can read a novel about pain and it will show you why there's pain and why it's happening, of all people, to you. you can read a novel about love, tragic love, and it will tell you why, in the end, it is not tragic after all and that it is, sometimes, only you who think it is tragic.


i read to be free. to be free from worries, to be free from stress, to be free from distractions, to be free from ignorance, to be free from dumbness.


lastly, i read because it is a gift. always remember that not everyone is able to read. you are among the few who are given the opportunity, that's why be grateful for it and use it. you'll never know until when you can read, so enjoy it while it lasts. inspire and encourage people to read.


there are a million other reasons why i love to read, but these, for me, are the most important.


you, you better start reading before it's too late. :)