What Joy Reading Has Brought to Us

I was introduced to the joys of reading at an early age. My parents encouraged this by buying a multitude of very exciting books which gave me hours of endless pleasure, and which have laid the foundations for my obsession with reading.

Naturally, one of the joys and aims of reading is to gain practical knowledge, though I have never consciously read for that purpose. I did, however, spend a large part of my childhood reading the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica', and although I did not understand half of it, I certainly enjoyed reading it and gazing at the pictures. Most of my father's books were devoured in this way, and I still love to skim through them now and again.

However, most of the books dealing with scholarly material were only read in moments of great boredom. Nonetheless they gave me great pleasure in passing many an idle hour. Whenever I am bored, I am very thankful when I come across a book that I have never read for I feel I should surely become insane otherwise.

Reading also helps me release stress in that it makes me relax and enjoy myself. One of the great pleasures of my existence is coming home after school, especially during the examination period, and opening up a good book. I certainly feel a great deal. better as I read, for I can feel each tightened sinew relax, each strained nerve quieten with the turning of each page. When I am finished, I feel a warmth and bliss that can perhaps only be matched by the sensation of a pleasant drowsiness one feels after drinking some wine.

Reading also allows me to indulge in my fascination with the fantastic. My collection of 'fantasy fiction' is quite amazing, and I always enjoy going over the books again and again. I regard reading as a form of mental exercise, to stretch and raise my imagination, and to enrich my soul. I much prefer reading a book to watching a dramatised version on television because I believe strongly in developing the mind's eye. The more imagination a book requires me to exercise, the more I-enjoy it. Reading is a special joy for me because it is all the arts combined in one form, including the visual, auditory and tactile sensations. It is for me, painting, sculpture, music, drama and dance all at once.

I love reading also because it increases my appreciation of the world around me. I enjoy reading poetry, especially the poems of the Romantic poets because of the pleasure I get from feeling a kinship with them and with nature. We read about the things that we have never stopped to consider, or appreciate, and then we feel a great wonder and joy at the immensity of life.

I also enjoy reading because it provides a means of escape from the pressures of my life. To read about a happy race that spends most of its time eating, drinking and making merry delights me, so that I feel there is, at least some place on earth where people have no cares and life is one long summer picnic. If, on the other hand, I read about people locked in a mean existence, I am moved to feel pity for the sufferings of my fellow-men, and I feel secure in the knowledge that I do not suffer alone.

Reading, for me, is also a pleasure because it allows me, in my mind, to travel to faraway, exotic lands that I may never visit physically. Thus I can feel that I have been to a Middle-Eastern bazaar, breathed in all its smells and seen its sights. I can feel that I have camped under the shadow of the pyramids or perhaps within the circle of Stonehenge. Not only does reading have the power to allow me transcend space, I also transcend time. It enables me to live with famous people and in famous places. I can during the course of a book, picture myself battling infidels during the Crusades or dancing a stately minuet in the court of the 'Sun King' at Versailles. Through reading, I am also able to understand the cultures of the various people I read about, and analyse the rise and fall of their civilisations. The lifestyles of the Roman patricians are nearly as familiar to me as my own.

Of course there have been times when I have not enjoyed reading at all, and even hated it-This happens whenever I am forced to read anything, especially when it has something to do with science, to which I am somewhat apathetic. On such occasions I have procrastinated, complained, thrown tantrums and anything but enjoyed reading. I have also learned that the fastest way to prevent me from reading is to force me to read a book within a given time.

On the whole, I can safely say that I enjoy reading to such an extent that it has become the love of my life. It answers almost all my needs except hunger and sleep. It serves me when I am lonely, bored, unhappy, in joy or in pain, in sickness or in health. Reading has such a multitude of joys for me that the greatest tragedy for me would be to stop reading. It is a lifelong pleasure and passion, and I would never give it up.