Lately, I have been picking some really good books. I can’t say that every book has been overwhelmingly liked by others, but for whatever reason, they’ve worked for me.  I’ve either enjoyed them because reading them was such an enjoyable experience, or they’ve stretched me a bit as a reader. This got me thinking… why do most people read?

I read to escape, but I also read to confront my fears. I don’t shy away from the dark, depressing stories like some readers do.  But, I just finished a wonderfully atmospheric book (can you guess which one?) and then picked up a really heavy read and I just about cried. It physically pained me to read it, yet I forced myself to finish it. Normally this type of book wouldn’t bother me at all, but jumping on that horse after just returning to the stable with the other one really shook me up.

If you only read one type of book, you would miss that feeling of being jarred right out of your senses. Wouldn’t you? Although the feeling wasn’t pleasant, I felt as if it was almost necessary for me to appreciate the writing of that heavier book. Had I read that book after finishing a book like it, I think I would have missed a lot of the raw, bitterness that was contained within those pages.

So my question to you is, why do you read? Is it for pure entertainment? To feel good? To challenge yourself in some way? And if you’ve ever found yourself in a reading funk, have you ever gone back to see what books you read during that time to see if you could have shaken it up a bit?