Average American Worker: "Wow was that a long day at work Why does my boss have to be so demanding and my clients so whiny. Do they realize I have a life too? I see my comfy recliner through the window as I pull up the driveway in my car. The garage door is closed, now where are those keys buried? Ahh there it is, into the lock it goes. Just steps away from sweet salvation. *drops into the recliner* ahhh. Now time to pass the evening with some good old fashioned, mindless, American television!" Wait, wait, wait, back this up! Pick up that remote turn that glowing box off, throw the flipper out the window, put a book into that man's hands, and roll it! "Now to curl up in my comfy seat and pass the evening by losing myself in an entirely different universe created within the pages of a good book." Thank you, that's better.
How sad America has become. A country in which reading has really become almost obsolete for most teenagers. Apart from school, extra curricular activities, and studying text books, reading for fun is not on the list of top priorities of how to spend that rare free time. An exhausted high school student would rather lay like broccoli in front of a glowing box playing "Jersey Shore" reruns. And while "Jersey Shore" is quite the complex alternative reality and takes some serious mental power to comprehend; I happen to think it would be a much better choice to ignore the TV, flip open a good book, and lose yourself in Robert Landon's rigid excitement in The Da Vinci Code, feel Noah and Allie's pure love in The Notebook (I know the movie's good, but give the book a try!), sink your teeth into a halfway decent vampire book (I know, punny), anything!
When any of my friends tell me that they hate reading, I just laugh in their face and say "of course you don't. You love reading, you just haven't found any good books yet, trust me." It takes one good book. Just one to get convert a "Jersey Shore" addict to one who just lives to devour books. For me it was Twilight when I was twelve (as embarrassing as that may be now). After that all I wanted to do was read anything I could get my hands on. My shelves full of picture books from my youth were constantly being replaced with increasingly mature novels, until my parents invested in the e-reading industry and bought my sisters and I Kindles.
The influential power a book may have over me is far more intense than any half hour sitcom could ever possibly hope to obtain. Heathcliff and Catherine's selfish love. Harry's destiny to save the wizarding community. Even Edward, Bella, and Jacob's supernatural love triangle. None of it can be reproduced through a glass screen. Put down the remote and try the pages that authors poured their heart and soul upon. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
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