To Read

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. 

The man who never reads lives only once. 

-George.R.R Martin 

To read is to really see the world. In the pages of a book I can be transported to Victorian England, a new planet, a new century, or hundreds of other places. 

To read is to fall in love with characters over and over again only to watch many of them get hurt. Even though its just on paper the hurt is real, the pain is real. 

To read is to fall in love with a story, eagerly awaiting a next book and feeling lost when the series is over. 

To read is to become friends with a group of fictional characters  that you will never meet or see. 

To read is to live, to see, to experience.

To read is to go to places that I will never see in real life because many of them don't exist. 

To read is to know that I will come away from a book slightly different and see the world in a different way.

Reading can be hard, painful, an emotional roller coaster, and sometimes heartbreaking but in the end its worth it. Worth it because to read is to live.