Discussion Time: Reasons I’m Thankful I Started, and Love, Reading

The very first book I can remember picking up and reading was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Before that my parents would read fairytales to me, and after it was the Twilight series. It was the fairytales that inspired my love of magic and happily ever afters’, Twilight that inspired my love of YA fiction, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that inspired my overall love of reading.

Ever since I was a child there’s been so much I’ve loved about picking up a new book and diving into a new story. It’s why I’m still reading now twenty years after the first Harry Potter book was released. I have friends, and even family members, who rarely read. They pick up maybe one or two books a year, and I wonder how?!

Reasons I’m Thankful I Started, and Love, Reading

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I have travelled all around the world without ever leaving my home

When I read the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series I travelled to Prague, Morocco and Rome with Karou, when I read The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue I travelled to Paris, Barcelona and Venice with Monty, Percy and Felicity, and when I read the Legend trilogy I travelled through dystopian Los Angeles with June and Day.

Travelling is one of my favourite things, and books can be like their own journey around the world if the setting is written well. It’s why the world building in fantasy books is such a big thing for me. I can visit Barcelona or Los Angeles or Rome myself, but I can’t visit Red London or Hogwarts or The Night Circus so I need to travel there through the stories.

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I’ve been on dangerous, deadly and epic adventures with my favourite characters

I am never going to have the kind of adventures Harry, Ron and Hermione did, or any of the characters in my favourite books do, and a lot of the time I wouldn’t want to. I’d likely be the character who ends up dying in the very beginning, but I can read about my favourite characters journeys – all full of magic and danger – and that’s the next best thing.

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I’ve learnt a lot from books

No matter what books you read there is always something you take away from them. Reading releases like The Book Thief and All the Light We Cannot See has taught me a lot about World War II, but even if it’s not something as easily defined as that, books can focus on some important life lessons.

It’s why diversity is so important. Stories like The Hate U Give, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and Highly Illogical Behaviour – that deal with the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBT+ sexualities, and mental illness – can teach us so much about life.

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I started a blog

This is a main reason, the number one reason, because where would I be without my blog? Most of my spare time is devoted to commenting and blog hopping and posting reviews or features. I love talking to everyone on WordPress, which is another point on this list, I love writing my reviews and putting them out there for the world to see, and I just love my blog and blogging in general

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I’ve met some amazing people

The whole of the bookish blogging community is a wonderful place to belong, and I’ve made some great friends through WordPress who I love talking to. Plus there’s nothing better than talking to someone about a book you both love; fangirling over the characters and relationships, sharing spoilers about the books already released and theories for the books still to be released.

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I’ve had the opportunity to go to some great events

For two years now I’ve attended YALC in London; they’ve each been two of the best weekends of my life and I’m already looking forwards to going next year. I went to the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with a large group of friends and one day I’ll make it to New York for Book Con. There is a whole world of bookish events out there and getting to go to the ones I have have been high points in my life.

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I can look back on picking up Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, or Twilight, or even to my mum reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to me, and know it’s responsible for some of the best parts of my life. There are so many reasons I love reading, but these are the main ones; it’s become a huge part of my life, along with blogging, and I can’t even imagine how much my life would have changed if I hadn’t picked up those initial book releases.

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Now Onto the Discussion Part of This Post:

What was the first book you can remember reading, or what was the first book that inspired your love of reading?

What are some of the reasons you’re thankful you started reading, do you agree with any of mine?

Let me know in the comments below.