The rain splatters on the windowpane as you turn the pages to your new library find. The pages smell like past memories and future adventures. Time slips away while you go further and further into a different world, laughing, crying, smiling and grimacing along with the invisible people all around you.

Oh, how I love those days. Growing up, I lived in them, taking every chance I could to revel in a good book. I constantly searched for my next read because I knew that no book would last long in my hands.

But then something happened.

I became too busy to read.

Sure, I read things, but they looked an awful lot more like textbooks than adventures. Even the "fun" books I read became like a chore to me because I had to force myself to sit down and read them. I would put off reading until midnight, and by then I could hardly keep my eyes open. Needless to say, I didn't read those books very quickly.

Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you spent your childhood with dragons and adventures but now the battle of life steals you away from the thrill of reading. Maybe you feel like you're starving the reader in you with the bland taste of textbooks and emails.

If that is you, then let me encourage you.

Read.

This sounds simple, but in the grownup world, reading can be a privilege that you don't think you can afford. You're too busy, too full, too distracted to read. But listen here, let yourself read.

This doesn't mean that you read for hours a day. It doesn't even mean that you will read very many books. Life sometimes doesn't let us read for hours on end. Don't approach reading as yet another thing to cloud your life, but come to it as a shelter from life, a comfort in the storm. I don't charge you to abandon life in favor of books, I simply challenge you to embrace the reader inside of you and read, if only for a bit.

Read because it stills your spirit.

The burdens of work, school and everything else of life evaporate as you delve into a good book. Suddenly, it doesn't matter that you are super busy next week and your room is dirty and you don't know what you're doing for dinner. All that matters is that the guy asks her out or the hero saves the day.

Read because it educates your mind.

I don't know how much I learned about life through reading. Books teach us morality, life lessons, culture, and more. Not to mention, they secretly also teach us how to spell, write and analyze thoughts.

Read because it connects you to others.

If someone tells you that reading is a solitary occupation, then they have obviously never heard a conversation about books. Although people may read alone, a common book makes even enemies friends.

Read because it is fun.

When did we lose the fun of reading? When did we forget the rush of finishing a book at 1:00 a.m.? When did we abandon the enjoyment of turning pages and fiddling with bookmarks? Reading is a privilege and joy, let us not ignore it. And let us never forget that it is fun.

If you let the world tell you that you are too busy to read, then take a step back. Remember the joys of reading and the comforts in pages and pages of words. Then take little steps forward. An afternoon in the rain, an evening under the lamp. It will take you aback how many opportunities to read you will find if you only seek them. They may not be many, but reading times are strong. Let us find them.

Above all, never become too busy to read.