Why I Read

For me, reading is a way to explore other worlds or philosophies by seeing through someone else's eyes rather than being lectured or simply told about something. Reading is an experience that allows me to relate to characters and go through their story rather than worrying about my own. By relating to other characters, I feel like I'm not alone in how I feel or think. I read because I want to learn new words and further develop my own opinions rather than conforming to everyone else's.


I liked getting locked into a story that I can't escape without knowing the ending. Even though characters aren't real people, when they feel like they are, it's such an incredible thing. I love it when books teach such incredible lessons that can apply to my life and help me through a tough situation or prepare me for the future. I love seeing how writers create such complex worlds and navigate us through them.


Books that can travel you back to another time period help me learn more about what it was actually like to be a person in that time, whereas history class only talks about the important events, not that the everyday person going through that event. It's important to know contrasting views about history, which I think books like All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr do so well. Rather than getting the typical American view of World War II, this book gives you the perspective of what people experienced in Europe before, during, and after the war. Books like this are the reason I read.