Today is my new favorite day: August 9th is National Book Lovers Day and I love any reason to celebrate! However, this Hallmark-ish holiday got me thinking about why I am a book lover, and why you should be, too. Don't judge a book by its cover yet, (pun intended), keep reading and I might have you convinced to pick up a new book sooner than you thought.

Are you looking for a new show to watch on Netflix? Don't. Look for a new book to read instead. It's so easy to mindlessly scroll through your phone, work on your computer, or chat with your friends while your show drowns on as background noise, but that doesn't happen when you read. Reading requires your full attention and commitment to the book at that moment. You can't halfway read a book while focusing the other half of your attention on something else. But in all honesty, you probably will not want to be doing anything else while you're reading. The right book reels you in within a few sentences, and suddenly, you're no longer where you were, but you're solving a mystery or taking the stage for a big show. Books give you the freedom to escape like nothing else can.

If I still haven't made you change your mind about starting a new Netflix show, let me try again. I know when I finish one show, it's always a struggle to pick a new one, and I usually re-watch one of the six or seven shows I've already seen three times through. However, when I finish one book, I never struggle to try to find a new one to read because I have a list of six or seven new books I want to get to. The only struggle is trying to decide which one to read first! My point here is that there are millions of books out there that are just what you're interested in; whether that be biographies, romantic novels, historical fiction, religion, or those guilty pleasure beach-reads that we all secretly love to escape to. This is entertainment in its purest form, and it doesn't get better than that.

Not only are books super entertaining, but they're informative and beneficial to our brains at the same time. You know that saying that goes something about "teachers are lifelong learners?" Well, true, but so are readers. Reading can undo the damage done to our brains by limiting beliefs we may have or even just a lack of knowledge. Just as you have to maintain your car, your brain is the same way too: in need of constant maintenance checks, and books can be just that. Although I'm an English major so I may be a little biased on the importance of reading, it's true that across the professional world the most successful people have one thing in common: they read! Reading keeps your brain performing at top notch and prepares you to be successful in every endeavor.

So, today is National Book Lovers Day and we're all paying a little more attention to reading and our favorite books, but when tomorrow rolls around, reading will still be just as entertaining and important, and I'll still be a book lover. I hope that now when tomorrow comes, you will be, too.