Avid reader that I am now, there was a time where I hated being forced to sit down with a book. As a little girl my punishment would be to write book reports, my mom would take away my TV, my phone, even my radio and force me to read as punishment. She also forced me to write summaries on the books I’d read, AND if that wasn’t enough she’d would rip off the back covers of my paper backs so I couldn’t “rephrase the summary that was on the back of the book.” (The idea of her doing this actually makes me cringe now.)

I think I became interested in reading out of spite; it couldn’t be a punishment if I liked doing it. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but it wasn’t long before I started to realize that the books my mom chose were actually kind of good, I simply didn’t like that reading was my punishment. My mom and I agreed that as long as I could pick what book I wanted reading whenever she wanted me to wouldn’t be so bad. Eventually, I came to love reading so much that my punishment became not reading. I could keep my phone, watch TV, and stay up late, but I couldn’t open a book for the entire duration of my punishment. My friends all thought it was ridiculous, but not being able to read after I’d finally learned to love it was not fun.

When I would be on punishment I’d sneak novels to school and read them all day in all of my classes, I’d finish one book every day at school, and having to catch up on the schoolwork I’d missed that day for homework. My teachers did not believe me when I told them I was not allowed to read at home because I was on punishment, but it worked. I did whatever I could to get in my mom’s good graces so I could read when I wanted to again.

A lot of people assume that most books are boring and filled with useless information or boring recitations. That’s because the books most people encounter are textbooks, and I promise you teachers conspire to choose the driest reading material for a class that they possibly can. On your next study break, take a walk to that part of the library few people visit, a nice mystery or romance novel can be really good. You’d be surprised how easy it is to become trapped in the fantasy world of the characters you’re reading about, anticipating what will happen next. If you aren’t sure of what type of book you’ll like, start with one that a movie was based on, if you liked the movie, then you already know you’ll like the story line of the book and as a general rule the book is almost always way better than the movie.

Give it a try, books don’t bite.