By KATE LEAVER
Want to be better person? Read more.
Get some words into you. Grab a blanket, banish your smartphone from the room, and slip into the life of someone other than yourself. Consume thousands of words with your eyes and your heart.
And write this down somewhere: When in doubt, read.
If I had a book for every time I’ve heard someone say “I don’t have time to read. Who has time to read?” I’d have a library as extensive as that one Belle gets in Beauty and the Beast.
Now, I’m an extreme reader. Sometimes I wish I could eat books just so I could get the pages in my brain faster.
I’m the kind of person who visits a book shop on a sad day, just to breathe in the smell of other people’s ideas sitting neatly on shelves. The kind of person who has to stop herself from nuzzling up to the person next to me on the bus with a book in their hand and asking them, “Whatchu readin’?” The kind of person who goes straight to a bookshop on pay day, takes a pile of books to the counter and when the bookshop guy says “These for a present?” I say, “Yep, Happy Monday, ME.”
And because the demise of the publishing industry is an unfathomable travesty, I’m always looking for reasons to make people read. So how about this one: Reading makes you a more loveable human being.
Check this headline on a story by Lauren Martin for the Elite Daily:
Why Readers, Scientifically, Are The Best People To Fall In Love With
And this one, by Annie Murphy Paul in Time Magazine:
Top Comments
Fortunately, I married a fellow book worm, although I tend to read much faster than he does, which means I spend more on books and there's always the library.
We have a book shop next to our chiropractor's. They sell new and secondhand books and are doing pretty well. So well, in fact, that the shop is becoming a bit of a fire hazard, there are that many books. I've gotten some obscure and out of print books from there, so when I go to the chiropractor, I just happen to go early for my appt and just happen to go to the bookshop.....
All I need in this life is an endless supply of food, a mountain of books and my bed. I could careless about anything else.
For Mamamia readers, what are your all time favourite books? I need something new to read.
And if you're a bookworm with an expensive habit, I suggest a fantastic website: http://www.brotherhoodbooks... - a successful online bookstore that sells high-quality donated books at a fraction of a cost, and all proceeds are 100% re-invested into charities!