When I was in school, every week we would have one 40 minutes class, where we were taken to the school library and we had to pick any novel of our liking. We were then required to read this novel and return it the following week. If we were not able to finish reading the novel in that one week’s duration, we could opt for taking the same novel home again for another week.

Now the catch here was that we were actually expected to read it. Whenever we used to return the novel, the Ma’am (who used to manage the library), would call anyone of us randomly, and we would have to give a summary of the story of the novel we had just returned. This was her way of checking that we had read the novel, which would help cultivate our reading habit.

During those days, reading novels were not really my cup of tea. I loved to listen to stories — YES, but reading them myself, was a complete no. Luckily for me, my elder sister was a bookworm. So, every week, I would ask her preferences on which novel she would like to read, and I would pick that up during my library class and give it to her on coming back home. She would then read it, and tell me the story before my next library class was due, so that I would not get caught and punished for not reading it.

This was our secret setting which was a win-win situation for both of us.

So, during my entire school life, I did not even read a single novel. I used to read comics, yes, but reading an entire book with just one story in it, was something I just could not contemplate how anyone could find that interesting.

…

Soon, I started with my college and for that; I had to move to a completely new city. I used to stay in a hostel and on my floor, we were ten of us. But, as luck would have it, among the ten of us, the other nine were in the same stream and I was the only odd one out.

Though that did not affect us in becoming the best of friends in the years to come, but their college timings were completely different from mine, and I found myself alone in the entire floor more often than I would really hope for.

It was during that time that I purchased my first novel. No one still believes me when I tell them that I actually took six whole months to finish my first novel, but that is true!! Maybe my choice of the novel (to be my first) was not actually correct as I just could not keep myself glued to it for long. But things really changed after that.

The next novel I purchased; I feel was what initiated my love for reading. It was so addictive, that I just could not keep it down once I started it, and I finished the entire novel at one go and finally went to bed at 4 in the morning!! Time just flew by and I was so engrossed on the story, I lost track of time and the fact that I had college the next day and so I had to sleep. It was then that I discovered which genre my interest lied in.

Since then, I have been a bookworm myself, and I would say, it was the best thing to have ever happened to me.

…

Reading did help me in several ways, like — when I had a bad phase going on during my hostel life, I read a lot of novels during that time. It helped me escape the toxic environment for the hours I would be engrossed in the storyline, and live a completely different life. The line between reality and fiction would fade, and it really helped me navigate through that difficult phase.

Even now, novels are my escape route: it helps me escape anything unpleasant happening in my life and get lost in the world of imagination.

But that is not the only thing reading helps us in. Whenever I read any book, I really admire the use of words and the way writers describe abstract things, so much so that you feel you can see the entire scene unfold right in front of your eyes. It helps us improve our vocabulary. I also believe, reading all these novels in all these years are what have helped me to pen down my thoughts into the exact words. I find myself to be able to express a lot better in writing, as compared to speaking.

Another thing that reading helps us in is, to increase our knowledge about so many things. For example, whenever we read any novel, we get to know about the place the story is based in, their culture, and their lifestyle, which we, otherwise, would have never come across.

Reading is one of the best hobbies one can cultivate. We just need to figure out where our interests lies in, and once we understand that, cultivating the habit of reading is never going to be a challenging task.

One quote that I really vouch for goes as follows: