When was the last time you read a book for fun?

Most of my peers would say elementary school, maybe even junior high. These days consist of late nights of homework, sports practices, music rehearsals, or working a job. And I get it. There is limited time in the day, and now a days, our lives are jam packed. People don't have time to sit down and read. Most don't even like reading. But how did we get this way?

As an avid reader myself, it baffles me when people say they hate reading. I get that we all have our differences, but I just can't wrap my head around absolutely despising to read. How can someone, in the course of their whole life, not have ever read a single cluster of words that they enjoyed?

I pondered over this for a while, and I realized that maybe it wasn't the books they hated to read, but the way they read them.

In high school, specifically my high school, all the books we are required to read we are also required to annotate, and annotate in a very specific manner that the whole assignment becomes so tedious and time consuming that everyone just ends up hating the book as a whole.

Because of this, people can easily end up hating to read, associating it with the task they abhor. And then these high school kids forever believe reading is work, and they grow up into adults who avoid reading all together.

And they miss out on so much.

So, to all my fellow anti-readers, I implore you, pick up a book, any book that seems interesting to you, and just read a chapter.

The joy of reading comes from not expecting to get anything from an old dusty 99 cent paperback, and then finding out three hours later as you sit in tears with the finished book in your hand that the book had in fact changed your whole perspective on life.

Literacy is a gift, and anyone can get something out of reading. As tempting as Netflix or social media or anything else is, there is definitely something special about curling up with a good book and relaxing after a long day, even if its just for a few minutes.

And if you don't know where to start, below is a list of a few of my favorite books from the past year, just suggestions!

1. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

2. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

3. Euphoria, Lily King

4. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

5. Gone Girl, Giligan Flynn

6. Lolita, Vladmir Nobakov

7. I'll Give You The Sun, Jandy Nelson

8. A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemmingway

9. A Casual Vacancy, J.K Rowling

10. The Ghost Writer, Phillip Roth