Why do you read?

You and that annoying question

It never fails. When I feel like reading during one of my work breaks, someone sits on the bench next to me and continues to stare. 

There's a certain pattern such people tend to follow. They watch you and try to figure out what you are reading - Or if you really are reading. Oh my god, is he - is he - reading a real book?! With words?

Next there is the scoot. This is the event in which someone scoots further along their own seat to close in on you. From the corner of your eye, you see them coming, and you wonder whether you should just get up and leave.

Then there is the question: "Hey, whatcha reading?"

"__________Book Here _________"

"Is it any good?"

I wouldn't know. How about you let me finish it?

Today is one of those days. I am sitting, reading Choke by Chuck Palahniuk (a bad read if your're depressed at work), and someone does the stare, the scoot, the question. Only this time, there's a variable in the aforementioned question.

They ask, "Why do you like to read?"

---

There's the whole theory about reading as a writer. The central concept behind reading as a writer, for anyone who doesn't know yet, is that you reconstruct the novel in your mind or on paper as you go. It's learning how to write by learning who to be a better, alert reader. Ever searched for foreshadowing in a movie, and when you found it, went, "Ha. There it is?" It's basically the same thing, though a little more intensive. 

However, I don't read in such an intellectual fashion, so to speak. I read because I enjoy it. I like that feeling of zoning out of the real world and off to somewhere more interesting for a moment. The best part of my day is the sad realization that I have to pause reading and go back to work. It's being lost between worlds for a moment.

If you're reading to see how a book is constructed, that's okay. But it's better to just read, read,read, rather than analyze. Such a skill comes naturally over time.

Thanks for reading. 

---