Why Do I Love Books So Much? (and why you should too)

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First Draft - Digital Story “Why Do I Love Books So Much? 

Keith Osterberg

9-12-13

I love to read. Books, magazines, comics, encyclopedias, you name it. I read a lot online too.  Sometimes people, especially students who don’t read very much, ask me why I read so much. They tell me they prefer TV or movies or video games.  “Read a book?  Ugh!” they say.

Let me tell you why I love books so much...and why you should too.

First of all, books can take you places and teach you things.  A book is a portal to different times and places. I can’t afford a plane ticket to Tahiti, or a hotel room when I get there, BUT with a book, I can experience it all...in here (points to head).  In my mind’s eye.  And if you have a library card. You can experience it for free!  

And not only can a book take you to different places, but it can take you to different times in history!  Ever wonder what life was like for someone like you back in the pioneer days?  Find the right book and you’re there.  A book can even take you to times that are yet to be...the future...Or even fantastic worlds that are pure imagination. 

Not only that, but with a good book, you can stand in the shoes of someone who isn’t at all like you...someone who is experiencing things you have never experienced, and maybe never will.  I’m never going to have a sword fight with an ogre or rock out in front of an audience of thousands of fans, but in a book, there are none of the limitations of real life.  In a book, I get to experience that.

“Wait a minute,” you say. “I can do that in a movie too. Or a video game. Why do I need a book?”  True enough, you can. But with a book, you are painting the picture. Your imagination turns the words on the page into the reality in your head.  A movie or video game dictates all that to you...how it will look and sound.  But not in a book.  In a book, it’s your call.

Reading was pretty much unavoidable in my house, growing up. My dad worked for a newspaper, so we always had the daily paper on the kitchen table. Dad was a big science fiction reader too.  My mom wasn’t into books as much, but she read a lot of magazines, and my older brother and sister were both avid novel readers.  

I read comic books.  I read fiction novels about kids my age who became spies and pickpockets and abolitionists.  I read a true life story about a 16-year-old guy who took a sailboat around the world, by himself!   And then, when I was about 10, my mom went to work for an encyclopedia company, and we ended up with a set of encyclopedias in the house.  THAT took my reading to a whole different level. 

You know what else all that reading did for me?  It made me smarter.  If you read a lot, you can’t help learning more about life and the world we live in.  You get a bigger vocabulary.  You learn to write better because, even if you don’t know all the rules of grammar, you know when something doesn’t sound right.  That’s a gift all those writers give to you.  Oh, and you get good grades.  No kidding.  Readers do better in school.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?  You learn to write better. You get a bigger view of the world. Your vocabulary gets bigger.  If you start reading books, you’re on your way to earning A’s, my friend.

So, if you aren’t reading, you’re missing out.  Get a library card, buy a paperback at the used book store, check something out at your school library.  Get started changing your life.  (stare)  Go on, do it.  (leave the frame. pause)  What are you still doing here.  Go! Get a book!  Be a reader.