Why I Love Reading (Ft. Books You’ll Love Reading, Too)

I think it’s no secret by now that I love reading.

I mean, this is my book blog, after all. And chances are you’re here because you enjoy reading, too. So maybe this post is a little bit preaching to the choir. The thing is, though, that working as a librarian, I run into a lot of people who don’t enjoy reading. And sometimes they’re a bit befuddled as to why I do. So let me clear the air a little in that regard.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is reasons why I love reading. I’ve done similar posts in the past, such as why I love reading fantasy, how my reading has changed since childhood, and how blogging has changed my reading. But I haven’t done one specifically about my love for reading in general yet, so here we are.

It wouldn’t be one of my posts, though, if it didn’t also hurt your TBR. So not only am I going to tell you why I love reading, but I’m going to give you books that I loved to read for that specific reason! So let the bookish love begin!

1. It’s like watching a movie . . . with your brain.

I tend to be really bad at watching movies, because I have a short attention span. It’s such a passive thing to do, so my mind tends to wander. It’s the same problem I have with audiobooks. Reading, though, is more of an active process that requires me to actually do something, so I can focus better when reading. I do have this weird thing where I’m not great at picturing stuff that I read, so what I picture isn’t necessarily accurate to how the author wrote it (because paying attention to details is hard, okay?).

               

2. I get to go on any number of adventures and experience things I likely won’t ever get a chance to in this lifetime.

I mean, first of all, you need to actually leave the house to have an adventure, and that’s not worked out well for us in the past year and a half, has it? Pandemics aside, I’m just not the extroverted, travel sort of person. I mean, there are people out there that want to, like, talk and invade your space and other exhausting things. No thank you. Besides, books let you see worlds that don’t technically exist (that we know of) and things that you won’t find just by going on an adventure. Plus, you get to visit while in the air conditioned comfort of your couch in your pajamas. Hard to pass that up, isn’t it?

               

3. It keeps my brain sharp and makes me question everything.

Sometimes this is done via mystery. I love whodunnit books, and I always want to try to solve them before the protagonists. Sometimes this is done through plot twists. You know that moment where you’re 99% sure you’ve worked everything out perfectly and you know exactly what’s going to happen. Then WHAM, you’re blindsided by something that should’ve been so bloody obvious and yet somehow you hadn’t even considered it. I love that sort of twist. Bonus points if it then makes me suspicious of every character that ever existed.

Sometimes, though, it’s just a good nonfiction book. I don’t read a ton of nonfiction, but I’ve found some really great ones over the years that teach me something new, even if it’s just how to see the world through someone else’s perspective.

               

4. Dark humor and sarcastic narrators are definitely a thing in books.

It may not come as much of a surprise, but since I live in the Bible belt in a small, Conservative town, it’s sometimes hard to find people with my sense of humor. Namely, a dark, sarcastic one. Now, I’m not saying that the two things are mutually exclusive (because they’re absolutely not). I’m just saying that I can’t actually joke with a lot of people in my county the way I would with a friend. Or you people. (Then again, we’re all friends here, right?)

So when I meet a character who’s cynical, with sharp, biting wit and a nasty sense of sarcasm, I immediately feel like I’m home. Yes, these are my people. I’ve finally found them! The greatest thing about books is being able to relate to characters in weird and unexpected ways, and generally mine is through sarcasm and humor.

               

5. I can see other wondrous (or sometimes terrifying) worlds that I normally can’t (because the real world is lame).

I would love for someone to find a way to make this world more like some of the bookish worlds. Preferably the ones that won’t end with my imminent demise, but you know what? I’m not picky. If that’s where we end up, that’s where we end up. I’ll at least make a good run of it.

I read a lot of fantasy mostly because I love seeing the different worlds that authors come up with. Sometimes they’re full of wonder and magic and everything I want to be real. Sometimes they’re filled with mythology that I definitely want to be real. Then again, they might also be utterly dark and terrifying and fun to visit in book form only and definitely not something I’d want to travel to. Probably. I dunno, knowing me, I might be convinced regardless.

               

6. I’m able to learn about other cultures that I may never get the chance to physically visit.

At some point in my life, I would love to travel and see different cultures and learn different things. However, the money situation being what it is, that’s not going to happen for a little while. Being able to expand my horizons and learn about different cultures through fiction is a great option. Especially since there’s a large amount of people who just can’t afford to travel or have other reasons they’re unable to. Learning about other cultures increases empathy and understanding, which is always a good thing.

               

7. Sometimes, books can be just the warm, uplifting hug feeling that you need in an otherwise crappy world.

Some days, it’s just nice to read a book that gives you the warm fuzzies. It’s part escapism and part survival instinct so that you don’t give up on life completely (because humans can be utterly frustrating). I tend to read a lot of dark fantasy, but once in a while, I pick up something lighter. Something that just restores my faith in people and leaves me with a big smile on my face, ready to take on the world again. Listen, the world needs necromancers and dragons, but it also needs books that feel like warm hugs. It balances things out.

               

8. Or they can scare the crap out of you and keep you awake because sleep is for the weak (and victims of ax murderers/murderous ghosts).

The world also needs books that will scare the bejeesus out of you and remind you to be thankful that nothing sinister has found you in the darkness. Yet. Paranormal horror is my favorite kind. Nothing too gory, but just enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The sort that makes the shadows move in the darkness, that convince you eyes are watching you. It’s just the sort of chill I need to cool down in the summer heat!

               

9. Reading was a special thing in my family that I had in common with the people who meant the most to me.

My grandfather had a nervous breakdown before I was born, and he only just started to come out of it when I was a baby. So he read a lot. We made a weekly trip to the local library, which is where my love for libraries originally came from. Before I could read (and sometimes even after), he and my mother and grandmother would read everything to me (newspapers, even, if we ran out of books that week).

Also fun fact: the first significant gift my husband ever gave me was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius for my birthday a couple months before we started dating. I mean, who gives a sixteen-year-old a book, let alone a philosophy book, for their birthday?! My future husband, obviously. I knew it right then and there. (That’s a lie. I’d liked him for years. That just solidified that my initial reaction was, in fact, correct.)

I’m also adding Harry Potter here. I know how problematic J. K. Rowling is now. Of course I do. But in 1998, when my aunt showed up at my door with the first book in hand, insisting that I just had to read this book her friend gave her? JKR was a nobody, and continued to be that way—for me, at least—until long after I finished reading the series. My aunt worked nights, so she would always wait in line to buy the next book at midnight, read it overnight at work, and then bring it to me the next day when she was done. We also had a tradition that the week the next Harry Potter movie came out, she would take me to see it. Regardless of what JKR does, nothing can erase the bond the series created between my aunt and I. Unfortunately, she passed away in March 2009, so she didn’t even get to finish the movie series.

               

10. There are dragons and talking swords.

I mean . . . you didn’t think I wasn’t going to mention these, did you? Pffft, come on. Surely you know me by now. I don’t even know when my thing for dragons began, it’s been so long ago. And I’ve enjoyed talking swords since I was a teenager, at least. So they’re pretty deep-seated at this point. I’m sort of picky about my dragon books (because there are so many of them and not always done well). Though, I will always give a dragon book a chance, just the same. Because dragons. Duh!

               

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