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10 reasons why i love reading #toptentuesday #blogger #bookblogger #bookx #booktwitter #bookworm.

July 6, 2021

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Reasons Why I Love Reading

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I’m linking up today with That Artsy Reader Girl: Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Reasons Why I Love Reading.

Why do YOU love to read?

The most simple reason I love reading is that I’m a lifelong reader and have always loved the world of words. I’m the kid who read the cereal box with my breakfast in the morning.

People who love reading and are lifelong readers, usually love it for several of the same reasons. I suppose that many readers could make a similar list. I’m joining in with other TTT list makers today to celebrate the love of reading. Which reason would top your list? Do you have other reasons why you love reading?

I Love Reading….

To experience different lives/times/cultures.

One of the most significant benefits of reading is transporting yourself to different time periods and experiencing different cultures. I often wonder how I would have lived my life during various times and circumstances. Reading improves the imagination.

To Develop Understanding and Compassion

Reading enhances compassion for others as we see life from other perspectives.

To Increase My Knowledge

I love historical fiction because I am continuing my education. Hazards of reading histfic include falling down Google rabbit holes as I am enticed to research different people, time periods, and events. Reading makes you smarter.

I wonder how non-readers survived the pandemic? Although my reading tastes gravitated toward lighter, happier reads during the pandemic, I could always turn off the news and escape into books. Days under lockdown never felt too bleak as I leaped into different imaginary worlds! Reading provides armchair travel and gives you places to go when you have to stay home.

To Experience “Book People Are the Best People”

Have you ever seen someone reading in a coffee shop or on a train and knew that you could be friends with that person because he/she was reading a book? Readers attract other readers and are the most interesting and thoughtful conversationalists! In addition, through blogging I have discovered the fabulous international book blogging community! Reading brings people together.

To Be a Good Conversationalist

One of my favorite conversation starters is “What are you reading?” or “What is your favorite book so far this year?” or “Do you have a favorite literary character?” or “Do you have a favorite author or genre?” Talking about books gives people opportunities to discuss a variety of important and meaningful topics.

I’ve initiated books conversations with and gifted books to my doctor (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek), my dentist (Project Hail Mary), my dental hygienist (Summer Romance), my hair stylist (a variety of histfic/women’s fiction), and my retina specialist (And There Was Light). Of course, I also regularly gift books to my friends, my mom, and my family.

I’m always flummoxed when the answer is “I don’t read.” Hummmm……. At that point, I ask the person to recall a time in their life when they did enjoy a book. Just recently my grandson, who is not a huge reader, told me that the only book he really ever enjoyed reading was Wild Robot. I think that’s great that he has identified one book that has given him a fond reading memory. I believe people who don’t read just haven’t found the right book yet, so my brain begins whirling with recommendations that would hook them.

To Endure Waiting

Actually, I look forward to waiting rooms! Even a long checkout line is a reading opportunity (if you carry your library with you in your pocket via the Kindle app). A thirty-minute wait in the school pick-up line becomes an excellent reading occasion! Even traffic can be a blessing if you are listening to an audiobook!

To Never Experience Boredom

Nothing on TV? No problem when you’ve got a book. All your friends are busy and you don’t have plans? No problem when you can read. Is it raining all weekend or you’re enduring an unprecedented heatwave or you’re under a hurricane or tornado warning and your outdoor plans have been canceled? Books to the rescue. Children need entertainment? Read a book together and then watch the movie. Books can be your best friend.

To Enjoy Inexpensive Entertainment

Books can be expensive, but there are ways to read on the cheap. Libraries, thrift stores, yard sales, Little Free Libraries, swapping with friends, watching for Kindle deals, asking publishers for ARCs, and Amazon gift cards for birthdays are all ways to cut down on book buying expenses. Last year I read 131 books: over 50% were from the library and another 30% were ARCs…..I bought only a small percentage of books last year and those were almost all on sale. A night at the movies or dinner in a restaurant will likely cost more than a book purchase.

To Give Book Recommendations

As a reader, I always have book recommendations! I love being able to find just the right book for a gift or make a perfect recommendation!

What’s your number one reason why you love reading?

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42 comments.

It’s fun and a great escape. I like your reasons. http://www.rsrue.blogspot.com

Thanks for commenting!

All of the above! I watch Kindle deals and GoodReads giveaways like it was my job LOL. I also like reading because it’s been a habit since I was nine years old. It’s been a constant in my life. How many hobbies can you say that you can grow with throughout the years?

Yes, reading is a wonderful lifelong hobby!

I agree with all of these, but I particularly love #6. I think being someone who is well known for being a reader makes me more accessible. Even people who don’t read know they can always start a conversation with me by asking, “What are you reading?” or “What’s the best book you’ve read this year?” I love it when people, especially non-readers, make that effort. Of course, I have longer conversations with those who actually read, but still…

Susan http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

Oh that’s a great insight Susan! Thanks for sharing!

Experiencing different cultures and lives is one of the best parts of reading, I think.

My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-reasons-why-i-love-reading/

I think so, too Lydia! Hoping over now to read your post!

I love your answers Carol. I just commented on another post about the people I have met when I am in Florida because they are reading and I stop and talk to them about their book. Some of them are there every year and we have become good friends. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t read, it is unfathomable.

Right?! What do people do who don’t read?! And reading is a great way to make friends! 🙌 virtually and IRL!

I’ve always being a reader. It gives me the opportunity to live different lives and be different characters I can’t be in real life. It’s the perfect excuse to not attend some programs I find boring with friends. It keeps my company and I am never bored. I don’t know if it’s just me but reading in the library gives me headache, hence am better off alone outside the library. I feel like it makes me productive. And when I meet people I can discuss the books I read with, that’s the best moments of my life. I am creating a group on WhatsApp where I can review/ discuss books with my friends. You can’t get into trouble reading books.

Escapism at its best! And you’re right, you can’t get into trouble! 🙌😂

I have always loved reading as well. There was a time when I was working full-time and attending college when I didn’t have time to read what I wanted to read and I remember longing for the time when I could read what I wanted to read.

I read for all of the same reasons you do, but I think my number one reason is that I am fully relaxed when I am reading. I realized this when going through a particularly difficult season. Like you Carol, I can’t imagine how people who don’t read deal with difficult times.

Thanks for sharing Gretchen! Reading does have its seasons. And yes I love how reading takes us away!

A great collection of reasons!

Here is my TTT post: https://readbakecreate.com/?p=468

Thanks for commenting! Hopping over now to read your post!

I agree with you. “Book people” are pretty cool! Here’s my list!

Thanks for commenting Lectrice! I’m hopping over now to read your post.

All of these responses resonated with me Carol, especially learning new things and escaping. I also use our local library and the apps available, so I’m not spending too much money on my reading addiction. I also agree with Gretchen above, I am at my most relaxed when reading a book. I can block out the world around me and just be in the book. That’s why I find audio books a bit hard at times, I am always doing something like driving or walking while listening to them and I can’t get the pictures from the words like I can when I read the words myself – if that makes sense! Great list!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Deb! I struggle with audio, too. I need to see the words!

I’m glad I’m not the only one to do so Carol. I keep persevering with it though.

I could relate to all of these. Making a decision a few years ago to read more books from authors around the world has given me far more insight into different cultures. Your number 6 reason is an good one. I’ve used books and reading as ice breakers when visiting colleagues in different countries : asking someone what books they would recommend from their country helped break down reservations.

Book questions make great conversation starters!

Brilliant reasons. We all share a lot of them.

Thanks Marianne! I’m hopping over now to read your post!

All great reasons! Never being bored, for sure — there’s no excuse for having nothing to do! (And I never understand how people can sit on an airplane for hours without a book in their hands… I think I would be looking for an exit and a parachute if I couldn’t read on planes!) My TTT

I think the same about people who sit on planes and in waiting rooms without reading! Hopping over now to read your post.

10 wonderful reasons for reading Carol. Plus, look at all the ‘friends’ we get to make and chat with that we would never have otherwise met! ❤📚

Bookish friends from around the world are the best! 🙌😍📚

Great post! I’m in it for the escapism and new ideas mostly

Can’t argue with that! 😍🙌

#1 is escape! And I truly love learning anything!

Yay for escape! We needed it in 2020!

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Thanks for the shout out! 🙌😍

Reading is purely about escapism for me. I want to live in a completely made up world.

Love to escape! 😍🙌

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I really liked it. I wanted to leave a note. I was reading your website. I also tried to share the site.

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18 Of The Most Illuminating Literary Passages On Love, Life, And Romance By Beau Taplin

“There was never going to be an “us” because you wanted to be missed more than you wanted to be loved.”

Updated 9 years ago, June 1, 2015

I can’t remember exactly when I first stumbled upon Beau Taplin’s writing. I suppose it was when I found myself in a used bookstore a few weeks ago with a copy of Hunting Season in my hands. Then I remembered, later, a friend from Australia had told me some time ago when we were in Nicaragua that he was one of her favorites. Beau’s work largely exists online, on posts that get reblogged thousands of times and on his website – the only place you can buy copies of his books. Here are a select few of some of the most beautiful and illuminating passages from his work.

“ Listen to me, your body is not a temple. Temples can be destroyed and desecrated. Your body is a forest—thick canopies of maple trees and sweet scented wildflowers sprouting in the under wood. You will grow back, over and over, no matter how badly you are devastated. ”

“ often, when we have a crush, when we lust for a person, we see only a small percentage of who they really are. the rest we make up for ourselves. rather than listen, or learn, we smother them in who we imagine them to be, what we desire for ourselves, we create little fantasies of people and let them grow in our hearts. and this is where the relationship fails. in time, the fiction we scribble onto a person falls away, the lies we tell ourselves unravel and soon the person standing in front of you is almost unrecognizable, you are now complete strangers in your own love. and what a terrible shame it is. my advice: pay attention to the small details of people, you will learn that the universe is far more spectacular an author than we could ever hope to be. ”, human beings are made of water–-, we were not designed to hold ourselves together, rather run freely like oceans like rivers, “ one day, whether you are 14, 28 or 65, you will stumble upon someone who will start a fire in you that cannot die. however, the saddest, most awful truth you will ever come to find – is they are not always with whom we spend our lives. ”, “ home is not where you are from, it is where you belong. some of us travel the whole world to find it. others, find it in a person.”, “ it’s 4am and i can’t remember how your voice sounds anymore. ”, “ it’s strange how your childhood sort of feels like forever. then suddenly you’re sixteen and the world becomes an hourglass and you’re watching the sand pile up at the wrong end. and you’re thinking of how when you were just a kid, your heartbeat was like a kick drum at a rock show, and now it’s just a time bomb ticking out. and it’s sad. and you want to forget about dying. but mostly you just want to forget about saying goodbye. ”, “ there was never going to be an “us” because you wanted to be missed more than you wanted to be loved. ”, “ it is a frightening thought, that in one fraction of a moment you can fall in the kind of love that takes a lifetime to get over. ”, “ the one thing i know for sure is that feelings are rarely mutual, so when they are, drop everything, forget belongings and expectations, forget the games, the two days between texts, the hard to gets because this is it, this is what the entire world is after and you’ve stumbled upon it by chance, by accident – so take a deep breath, take a step forward, now run, collide like planets in the system of a dying sun, embrace each other with both arms and let all the rules, the opinions and common sense crash down around you. because this is love kid, and it’s all yours. believe me, you’re in for one hell of a ride, after all – this is the one thing i know for sure. ”, “ the single greatest thing about love, in my experience, is the way it is doomed to pain and loss from its onset. whether it is the spouse that outlives their lover, or loses them to another, there is no escaping that most solemn of inevitabilities. that two people can commit themselves to all this sadness and heartache in the name of such brief happiness, the warm touch of familiar skin, the unrivalled pleasantness in waking up beside the same person you spent the entire night with in your dreams, is all the proof i need that insanity exists, and it is fucking beautiful. ”, “ it’s you. it’s been you for as long as i can remember. everyone else has just been another failed attempt at perfecting the art of pretending you’re not. i miss you. ”, “ i want somebody with a sharp intellect and a heart from hell. somebody with eyes like starfire and a mouth with a kiss like a bottomless well. but mostly i just want someone who will love me. when i do not know how to love myself. ”, “ do not call me perfect, a lie is never a compliment. call me an erratic damaged and insecure mess. then tell me that you love me for it. ”, “ the hours between 12am and 6am have a funny habit of making you feel like you’re either on top of the world, or under it. ”, “ my heart beats in almosts. it’s constantly in pursuit of those whom it desires but the moment it comes too close, it stops, turns, and bolts in the other direction. i hold onto what makes me miserable and i let the good things go. i’m self destructive.” i said. “it’s the way i’ve always been.”  “and why do you think that is”   “because it’s simpler to destroy something you love,” i said.  “than it is to watch it leave. ”, “ i just want to be the person you miss at 3am. ”, “ she was unstoppable. not because she did not have failures or doubts, but because she continued on despite them. ”, for more from koty follow her on facebook ..