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Hello everyone!
George RR Martin’s masterpiece, A Game of Thrones, as well as the other books in the ASOIAF Series, got me hooked on reading again! I started reading his books the Summer before my Freshman year of college and once I started I was hooked. My pace was slow at first but of course I had to work at reading. I hadn’t read books of that size in quite awhile so I was a bit rusty. I pulled through in the end and finished it all! This was a year ago. Since then I’ve been keeping up a very nice pace and thanks to the encouragement of my girlfriend Gayle, an avid reader, I’ve been able to read over 10 books since then. If High School Nick had heard this news he wouldn’t have believed it.
I’ve read Frank Herbert’s Dune, two Stephen King novels, Aldous Huxley’s masterpiece Brave New World, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Artemis Fowl, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and multiple self-helps books. I could tell you what I’ve learned from all of these books but I’d rather let you know how I’ve felt after reading all of these books: amazing. There’s just something fulfilling about finishing a novel. I felt motivated to work harder, regardless of the type of book I read. I was sleeping better. I was more health conscious. Reading has become one of the most fulfilling hobbies I’ve ever had and it’s become more entertaining for me than other forms of media. You can’t look at a TV show a different way. You can’t re-imagine a movie. A comic book’s pictures will never change. But a book, well, that canvas can be painted over and over again and the only limit is your mind.
There’s nothing quite like connecting to a character of your own vision and seeing them progress at the pace you read. It’s truly living in someone else’s shoes. It’s just too hard to get that same connection in movie’s or television. I’m certainly not saying that other forms of entertainment are subpar to books. Books are just beneficial in other areas of your life. The increased levels of productivity, flux of new ideas, and emotional intelligence that develop from reading overshadow the insignificant benefits of other forms of entertainment. Reading has been eclipsed by video games, movies, and television. The interest in reading just doesn’t seem as high as it did in my parent’s generation. I will definitely be reading more than I’ll be plugged in and I hope that more people see the light and join me!
I want to continue this path. I want to dedicate myself to reading a book every 2 weeks, then a book every week, and then even more. Since I started, my reading speed has increased quite a lot and I am finishing books faster than I ever was before discovering the world of Westeros (A Game of Thrones). It’s the story that drives you forward to see what’s next. Week after week you find more time to put into reading because you want to see the progression of the characters and story. This is how I started reading more books in less time. All it takes is one character, issue, theme, idea, or setting that interests you. That one book that will get you back into reading like you probably did in elementary school. For me, that series was the Game of Thrones series (A Song of Ice and Fire for the true fans). Find that concept or idea that truly interests you and start reading books that relate. I promise it’ll snowball from there!
What do you care about? What interests you? What gets you excited? Find a book on that subject, whether non-fiction or fiction, and get started!
~Nick