Reading

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close.  When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her.  You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you.  She'll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.  Date a girl who reads because you deserve it.  You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable.  If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads. 

-Rosemarie Urquico

I don't know that I completely agree with this quote, so don't take it too seriously.  But I think to large extent it captures the feeling of why I love to read so much.  The way that a story can envelop a soul, how characters become your intimate friends, and the fervor with which you read and can't put it down.  The best books are incredible.  They can be an escape from everything.  They can be your best friend, or your greatest rival.  They can fulfill in you desires that you didn't even know existed, and give you insights into yourself and the world around you.

I don't require that everyone love books, but I do.  And I mourn the loss of passion and opportunity that those who don't read miss.  Books are friends, not homework.