Ten Things We Love About Reading

This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and Bookish, was an open topic - ten things we love about something bookish. We chose ten things we love about reading in general, so we can express our love for this little thing that's taken over our lives (in the best way).

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Angharad's choices:

1. The way it lets you escape reality. 

Reading has pulled me from rock bottom so many times and it has helped me cope with the hard things in life. I can just open a book and leave this world and enter the fictional one.

2. The way it teaches you. 

I've learned so many things from reading and not just factual things but life lessons and morals. I don't believe I'd be the same person now if I hadn't read all my life. 

3. How it allows you to connect with other readers all over the world.

The mutual love of a book can unite anybody regardless of how different they are as people. Places like Goodreads where you can get book recommendations and read people's reviews. It's a beautiful community to be part of. 

4. It gives me an excuse to stay in bookshops for hours on end without the members of staff asking me to leave. 

It allows me to recommend books to complete strangers and just smell all the pages! Is there anything better than the smell of hundreds of books?

5. How it inspires you. 

Reading a good book can inspire you to discuss it, create art for it, photograph it. You can see yourselves in the characters, want to be more like them and inspire to be as courageous as them. 

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Becky's choices:

1. You get to meet new people without actually having to interact with anyone.

I love people when they're virtual or fictional. Real life people, I find a bit more difficult. Therefore, getting to know characters in books and feeling like they're your new best mate is the perfect solution for someone who's always struggled to make friends, right?

2. It's a cheaper way to travel.

I feel like I've been all over the world, and to different worlds, thanks to reading books. Not only that, but they've helped me appreciate parts of the world and cultures that I previously knew nothing about, and also plan out future trips. I'm heading to Prague for a week in September, and that's all thanks to Daughter of Smoke and Bone!

3. How immersive reading can be. 

Countless times, I've been sat somewhere reading a book, and become so engrossed in the plot that I'll look up and have forgotten where I was. I'd much rather be in Middle Earth or something than sat on a cat-scratched sofa in my pyjamas at 2pm (which is usually the reality).

4. When you start a new book that you haven't heard of or don't know much about, and really enjoy it. 
I love it when you're in the middle of a book, and maybe you weren't sure about it or just didn't know much about it, and then suddenly, something clicks. This book is now your life and you revolve around it.


5. The emotions that reading a book can make you feel.
Books have made me laugh, cry, cringe, blush, gasp out loud. They've made me weep for hours on end and get teary whenever they're mentioned for weeks after. They've made me smile until my cheeks hurt. Reading can make you feel so many things and it's affected me so much throughout my life.

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What are some of your favourite things about reading? Let us know in the comments!