Reading

When I was little, the library used to be one of my favorite places in the entire world. I envied Matilda because not only did she live within walking distance from a library, but she could bring home a WAGON full of books whenever she wanted to. A WAGON! All I could manage was what would fit in my stubby arms!

Unfortunately, as life went on, and I grew up and started to take on more and more responsibilities, reading fell to the wayside. It was hard enough keeping up with all of my academic and extracurricular committments, and the last thing I wanted to do after spending twelve grueling hours of staring at various papers (textbooks, homework, Shakespeare, Austen…) was read for pleasure. An hour’s worth of mind-numbing Netflix or Hulu before bed sounded so much better. I honestly don’t think I’ve read a book for pleasure since the ninth grade. I’ve read quite a bit, mind you, but not for pleasure.

There’s this theory that we learned in my psychology class called the overjustification effect. It explains how when a tangible reward is put on something one enjoys doing (such as points in English class), one loses their original passion for the activity (such as reading) if not given a reward (again, points in English class). I think that’s what happened to me and reading–after reading and annotating and analyzing for credit for so long, I completely forgot how relaxing and wonderful just reading for pleasure can be!

But now, enough is enough.

I’ve made a commitment to read more. Hopefully this blog will help, because after reading a book, I’ll post my thoughts about it. Of course, I won’t only talk about reading and books and all–don’t worry! But still, it’ll be a good way to gain closure on a book.

I’ve just recently finished Dan Brown’s Inferno, and now I really want to get my hands on a copy of Farenheit 451.

I’m so excited! :)

With love,

Adrija