why I read so much. They say,
“Isn’t it boring?”
“Don’t you get tired of it?”
“Don’t you have anything better to do?”
I read because I want to learn more. I want to learn about the stuff you don’t learn in school; the government isn’t always right- try reading the Pentagon Papers.
I read because I want to learn how it was for the man exiled from Soviet Russia, to feel how he felt, to read his satire of totalitarianism. Thank you, Zamyatin.
I read because sometimes poetry is the only thing that can articulate my feelings properly, without me having said anything. Read all poetry- it’s hard to find bad poetry.
I read because books provide an escape into another world where I don’t have to look at my ex’s face or hear the grating reel that is my mother’s voice… Tolkien is the perfect relief for such situations.
Oftentimes I find myself re-reading Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, We The Living, Anthem, We, A Clockwork Orange, Slaughterhouse Five, Fahrenheit 451…. because sometimes the news reflects the voice of Big Brother, and I can see the tidings of Orwellian times ahead.
But really, you ask me why I read books?
I read them because it gives me an excuse to not talk to ignorant people like you.

Walking through the hallways alone at school gives me the chance to really observe my surroundings
The screaming freshmen
The sophomores who deliberately clog up the hall because they feel like they need to make themselves ‘powerful’
My fellow elitist classmates with their ridiculous clip-on bowties and glittery Starbucks coffee cups
Old friends that aren’t friends anymore because of that one argument you can’t even remember having
The football players that throw stuff across the atrium because ‘fuck you’
And it is during these times that I truly realize how much I fucking hate high school
And how angry I am that once again, I am the last to leave