Introduction / On Recreational Reading

This is my first foray into the blogging world. I actually never expected myself to do this. As an aspiring writer, I constantly get frustrated at how little time I spend actually writing, so why should I add another writing task to my list? My personal journal doesn't even get enough attention.

What drove me to do this was my passion for reading. To love writing, you have to love reading, and I definitely do both. Especially lately, I have found myself totally drawn into books and always looking for the next book to read. I love it. The problem is when I come to the end of a book. When I finish, do I just return it to the library (or put it back on the shelf if I'm lucky enough to own it), and that's it? I felt like I needed a way to express my thoughts about what I've read. Even if nobody else would hear about it, I wanted a place to keep my memories of how I felt during my reading experiences.

After a little thought, I decided on this blog. For one thing, it minimizes the amount of work for me---all I have to do is write. For another, if out of the billions of people on Earth there is one person who might be curious about one of the books I've written about, I can help that person out a little bit.

So there you go. This is my log of book reviews---or reading experiences, if you will. I hope you enjoy it. Even if you don't, thanks for coming.

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As a college student, almost every time I talk to somebody about a great book I'm reading, I hear something like "I wish I had time to read for fun" or "Once summer comes I'm going to read a lot" or "I can't remember the last book I read just for kicks." We students are busy people. There is so much on our plate, so many responsibilities, that to take the time to read a book just for the pleasure of it is practically a sin. Or at least that's how a lot of people feel about it.

But a lot of them also wish things could be different. Now granted, I am probably not as busy as a lot of people around me. My own roommate definitely has a much heavier workload than I do. But I'm a full-time student with a part-time job, and I have plenty of other responsibilities on top of that, so a moment seldom passes by in which I'm not reminded of something I should be doing. Yet I've somehow found time to read---for fun!

I guess it comes down to a decision I made. Once we decide that we really want something and that it's important to us, chances are we're going to find a way to get it. In my case, I was sitting in a church meeting in which we talked about the priorities of things we do. One person suggested that reading novels is a good thing but probably not one of the best uses of our time. A few minutes later, someone else argued that it all depends. If someone wants to be a fiction writer, he said, reading novels is very important. That really spoke to me, since I myself want to be a fiction writer, and that's when it hit me: I hadn't read fiction in quite a while.

That's when I made the decision to make fiction a part of my daily life. And somehow I've managed it, as busy as I've been. As silly as it sounds, I feel like it's improved my life in several ways. It's rekindled a passion that I'd almost forgotten about. It's given my mind a new world, a new outlet, when it was getting tired of itself. The best part is that it's inspired me to write.

But recreational reading isn't just for writers. I think everyone should do it. I know everybody is busy, but we all need a little escape now and then. As for those people who keep wishing they had the time, I'll bet they could manage once they tried to make the time rather than find it. If they really want it.

Of course, it's up to you. But I'm going to keep reading.