Atwood H. Townsend once said "No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance." I couldn't agree more and while I know a handful of people who enjoy reading for pleasure, there are very few students and millennials in general who take pride in their personal reading list.
Prior to attending university I would read up to two novels a week; anything from classic literature to fantasy novels, and yet once I enrolled at university this changed. My joint degree in English and American Literature and Sociology kept be busy with hundreds and hundreds of pages of reading per week. After a month I became worried I had lost the art of reading for pleasure. I decided to change that.
I bought numerous books and revelled in all they taught me. Instead of spending up to five hours per day browsing the internet, I read some of my book and was relieved to have some interesting information to pass on to my family and friends.
It saddens me to think the days of curling up on a sofa with a hot chocolate and a good book are over. It saddens me even more to think that people just don't care about what they're reading.
I urge you all to take a minute to think about the last time you read a book for pleasure. Now, think about how many hours you've spent thinking you're 'bored' or that you've spent browsing the internet aimlessly. You'll be shocked when you come to the realisation that actually you haven't read a book for pleasure in a very long time and that you've wasted your day on the internet.
I urge you to go to your local library, go to a charity shop or even order a book off Amazon. Read for pleasure. Enjoy it. Revel in it. Don't allow it to become a thing of the past.
What I'm Currently Reading:
1) 'The Virtue of Selfishness' by Ayn Rand
2) 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman
3) 'The First Phone Call From Heaven' by Mitch Albom