Vices.
Ever since I was a child, I loved reading. I was the first student to read in pre-school, amazing my teachers. When I was eight, I read the first four books of Harry Potter. Reading, whether it be through picture books as a child, or articles and blog posts during the present, has always been a major force in my life, most likely for the better.
However, this leads to a problem: purchasing books. I’ve never liked the library systems, for reasons I find to be ridiculous, yet true. I don’t like just browsing through a book and returning it the next week. I like to keep books, to own books. Books touch me, in an odd way. Yes, Kindles and Nooks are changing the way we as humans get reading done. But they will never be able to replace the feeling of a new book, the way the pages turn freshly, the way the cover feels. These feelings, over all, are the reason I love books.
So, back to purchasing. If I had to estimate, I would say that, throughout the years I’ve already lived, I’ve spent about one thousand to two thousand dollars on reading material.1 It’s a mighty amount, especially for books. However, unlike vices such as smoking or drinking, it gives me something in return: knowledge.
Books have advanced the way I think, the way I read, the way I discover. Without books, I may have never started this blog. Without books, I may have hated writing, and never even though of completing NaNoWriMo. Without books, I may not have ever thought about picking up a pencil and writing what I thought. Books have not just provided me with entertainment; they’ve shaped the way I live my life. And that is something worth all the money in the world.
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“Reading material” meaning magazines, newspapers, and books. ↩
![We view our world in black and white.
We’re blind to the outside world around us. We only see our lives; we don’t live others lives, nor do we understand how every individual lives.
Outside of out simple, black and white life is a wide array of color: shades of red, and blue, and green, that we will never experience. Unless, of course, we take a risk.
We can expand our horizons by expanding our world. We can explore, we can leave our safe zones, we can run free. There’s nothing stopping us. All we have to do is want to see the color of others’ worlds.
Photo credit: “Portland [Black & White]” by Andre Peniche](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kyufcomt4Q1qzpcf6o1_500.jpg)
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