Why Do You Read?

While exploring the musings of my favorite bloggers [even though I really needed to be doing homework], I came across Choco [in which a girl reads] 's post "why do you read?" where she discussed why she reads now, why she used to read, etc. [after she finished... well, I'll just let you read it for yourself]. Her last two sentences were "What about you? Why do you read?" And this, dear readers, is my answer:

It all started when I learned how to read [I have no idea when that was. I just know that I did, in fact, learn how]. My favorite book in the world was Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss. [if you haven't read it, I would go read it now because it's pretty much the most genius book ever written...] I progressed in my reading skills until I read my [and my older sister's-although she first read it a few years before I did] very first chapter book [which I still own.... along with Hop on Pop] : Opening Books by Mae Knight Clark. [I've always counted it as a chapter book, although it's not a traditional one.]

Once I could read real books steadily and without help*, I read almost anything I could get my hands on: from Sideways Stories From Wayside School to the Mary Kate and Ashley books to the Nancy Drew Notebooks to the Magic Tree House books to everything else in the library. Anytime I got to go to a bookstore, instead of browsing the books, I would sit down right in the middle of an aisle where I found a good book and read [which was nice because we would stay in every bookstore we went to for at least an hour]. And that's what I did as a child: I read.

**

As I grew physically and mentally and became an older child, I started moving from the Magic Attic Club books and the Boxcar Children [along with the aforementioned books] to books by Sharon Creech, [others by] Louis Sachar, Roald Dahl, etc. Even as I hit the tween range, I was a bit hesitant to walk across the library to the three bookshelves [yes, only three. My local library is super small.] that made up the YA section. I stuck with my friends in the JF section until about 7th grade when I finally became confident enough [and even then it took a lot to walk all the way across]. And now, I automatically walk straight to the YA section, although I sometimes hit up the JV/picture books/adult fiction.

So there's a brief history of my reading life. But that didn't exactly answer the question.

Why do I read? I read because I'd rather be in Narnia than in this world, in Europe than in the U.S., in Greece than in Ohio. I read because when you crush on book characters, you don't need to worry about saying/doing the wrong thing in front of them.

Why do I read? Because it transports me to a different world, whether it be completely realistic or total fantasy. I read because "books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back." ***

Why do I read? To take a break from the dramas of my life and listen to the dramas of others'. I read because I care about whether Charlotte will manage to save Wilbur and whether Harry will defeat You-Know-Who; I care about the crazy school of 30 floors with one classroom on each floor and whether Sam-I-Am can convince him to eat green eggs and ham.

Why do I read? The answer is simple: I read because I love it.

So... Why do YOU read?

-SilverLining

*Actually, I read everything before then. I remember going to the library one time and checking out SIXTY Easy Readers. Sixty.

**In case if you were wondering/care at all, I read the Harry Potters sometime in between being a tot and a tween, however I don't remember exactly when [although I think I read them in the summer after 2nd grade/year of 3rd grade... I had a reading level considerably higher than my grade was.]

***Quote by the ever fabulous John Green.