Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Why I Read

This was an essay I wrote a couple weeks ago for my college writing class. I thought I would share since I'm sure plenty of you can relate.

Nerdom

Only nerds read books. What an original statement. It’s the same thing I hear every time my siblings and friends catch me cuddled up on the couch flipping to the next page. Labeling readers as nerds naturally gives reading a negative image. Though truthfully, only positives can come from between the covers. The amount of available knowledge as well as entertainment through reading is endless.

This nerdy stereotype is construed by a series of false assumptions. Many think bookworms are formed due to a lack of friends. Or, they assume all readers hole themselves up in some lonely corner to cram as much knowledge into their brains as possible. However, I read for neither of these reasons.

Novels are a passageway into a different life. The pages of a book can come alive into scenarios I couldn’t normally experience. One day I can be a vampire princess ruling the European monarchy, and the next I can see the world through the eyes of a famous serial killer. Books allow me to temporarily live in worlds so foreign to my own. There’s simply nothing dorky about living.

Books also serve as an escape. Instead of failing at an attempt to sleep through a boring eight hour car ride, I can simply flip open a book. Time quickly changes from a standstill to race pace. An exciting novel can also quickly transform my surroundings. Just as I get bored of all things Bend Oregon, I can crack the cover of a world light-years away, erasing all my worries.

Though I don’t sit in an attic all night and cram unwilling information into my skull, I do enjoy the knowledge I gain through reading. Instead of learning through the medium of a dry textbook I can expand my knowledge through a gripping fictional story based in Elizabethan England. I almost consider reading a secondary education. There are many times I find myself bored in school because I have already learned through books what the teacher is lecturing about.

I don’t read for nerdy reasons. I read because it’s an adventure. It gives me a chance to experience the far corners of imagination and beyond. Reading is a highway to happiness, not nerdom. So the next time someone picks on you for reading just remember, the jokes on them.

9 comments:

  1. That was good!

    You have all the reason, for me reading is passion, a way out of my life for a moment to a wonderful life where all is possible. Reading you can travel trough time and places, be that people who look very boring on the text books. I feel sorry for the people who can't understand this feeling because for me reading is one of the greatest pleasures of life.

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  2. Thats how I feel too. I wish there was like a podcast or a movie or something non-readers could see to learn how magical reading really is.

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  3. I love reading because I can get swept away in the story. Great essay!

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  4. If reading makes me a Nerd, then I say NERDS UNITE!

    A for your essay from me Taylor (= Great job!

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  5. That was a great essay, Taylor! And eventually we come to realize that nerds are actually great, they make the best lovers and friends. :)

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  6. Good essay! And the joke's really on them as reading keeps away a degenerative brain! Reading keeps the brain active and stimulated. The more you use it, the lower the lower the chance of it crapping out on you (think memory loss, degenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, etc). So the next time you get made fun of for reading, just them know at least your brain will last longer.

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  7. That was really good! I totally agree!

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