Why Do We Read? Why do we read? It is impossible to coin one simple answer for this, as reading means so much to so many different people. As a child, you would sit at your parents knee and listen to all sorts of vibrant, exciting, comforting tales before you would drift off to sleep and imagine your own. As an adult, reading becomes a far deeper affair, as you are able to look beyond the words and see the meaning beneath. A well told story is something that is loved by all, something that makes you feel, something that stays with you for the rest of your #life. A good author is a very talented individual, someone that can write words onto a page and turn them into so much more than that. They can create another world, a realm where the only limits are that of their own imagination. A place for anyone to visit, to unwind, to escape from reality as everyone must sometimes. A good book can help you through #life and make you a better person. A good book is an extraordinary thing.
You've Got Mail Jack hurried out of school at the end of a long day, absentmindedly fiddling with his phone. He was looking forward to a quiet evening, relax, maybe watch TV, nothing much. His phone beeped, signalling a text message. Reluctantly, he opened it up. Probably from his mother or something. Little did he know it would change his #life... 'Hi Jack,' it read 'It's me! Well, you, well, a future version of you, anyway. 2 days, 4 hours and 24 minutes into the future to be precise. And I'm dead. As you can imagine I'm a bit miffed. It's not much use being dead and the wifi here's terrible. So I need your help. Well, my help, well, you know what I mean. I died in a freak accident. It wasn't pretty. But then deaths aren't normally. Anyway, brought up on my diet of junk food and video games, I didn't have the imagination to save myself. Maybe if I'd have just read a book, seen them as something more than just work, I would've had more intuition to escape. Books broaden the mind, unlock a world of possibility inaccessible before. Books give you power. Anyway, that's just your view from the benefit of hindsight. If you decide against it, then you can look forward to being dead. Cheerio! All my love, Jack.' When he got home, Jack rushed straight upstairs to his TV as usual. But when he went to reach for the remote, he hesitated. He turned instead to his old bookshelf, from which he picked up an ageing book, gathering dust. He sat on his bed, opened it up, and started reading. And he never stopped reading for the rest of his #life. And believe me, he had a very long #life.