"Why do you read?" The question is, why wouldn't I read?

We read everyday. It's a common place occurrence, at least within the United States. If you don't know how to read, your considered strange and uneducated. Unless of course, you have a disability that prevents you from reading, but that's another story altogether.

We read billboards, ads, subtitles, textbooks, food labels, fiction, pretty much anything. Reading is a part of everyday life that we as Americans take for granted. Yet there are so many people who don't like to read.

What exactly is reading? Is it looking at 26 letters on a page and interpreting what the patterns mean? Are you just staring at a page? Yes, but that's not all.

Reading takes creativity. It stimulates the mind, allows for the mind to grow. Each book contains it's own world. As you read a work of fiction, you get to know the different characters, see their faces, hear their voices. You walk along side them, sometimes from their points of view. You step into a whole new reality every time you open a book.

These characters live and breathe amidst those pages. The author becomes a story teller, and you get to fill in the blanks. Books keep track of the story. Non-fiction books tell the story of real live people, alive or already gone. Fiction tells a different kind of story. Those stories only exist between those pages and in your own mind.

You feel pain with the characters, understand their thought process. You get angry at them for making poor choices, cry with them during tragedy, rejoice with them. You feel a pull towards those pages. You realize that the characters have a life of their own. You get to know the characters and watch their lives unfold between the pages of a book.

Reading allows me to escape into another reality. Sometimes, you need to see someone else's life to recharge. Sometimes you just want to think about something else for a while. Sometimes you just, in general, want to see what happens next.

It's the same reason why people watch TV or movies. The difference is, instead of staring at a screen, you're staring at a book. Instead of letting the pieces all fall into place based on someone else's vision, you get to make the cast yourself. You get to make the setting, music, costuming, everything. The limits are your own imagination.

Some people say that reading is boring. I say that reading opens a whole new realm of possibilities. There's even different genres for what best suits your own style. Some people like to read the more realistic, whether that be fiction or non-fiction. Others like to read more of the fantasy realm, or even sci-fi. There are so many options this list could go on forever.

Yes, there are just as many options in films or TV. But do you really get to be creative with the cast yourself? Do you get to choose what the characters look like? What they sound like? What their wearing? What about their surroundings? Reading allows your imagination to run wild.

The question you should be asking isn't "Why do you read?" You should be asking yourself "Why don't I?"