ResQgeek

I believe in the power of reading.  The written word is capable of conveying incredible information, of expanding our horizons far beyond anything that we could ever hope to experience first hand.  Through reading, we can learn and grow in completely unexpected ways.  Books can change us, and we, in turn, can change our world in ways both small and large.

I try to devote a significant amount of my free time to reading.  I almost always have a book nearby that I am in the process of reading, and if I don’t, I somehow feel a bit incomplete.  Not only to I try to read in quantity, I also try to read widely in scope.  At various points in my life, I have found myself enjoying certain types of books, going back to that genre again and again.  As a teenager and in college, my reading was devoted largely to science fiction and fantasy.  As a young adult, I read a lot of espionage thrillers before becoming engrossed in historical fiction.  These days, I find myself reading a lot of non-fiction, whether it be memoirs, historical analyses, books about science, or religion, or politics, though I still try to include fictional novels in my reading, because it helps inspire my imagination.

I believe that seeking out a broad range of topics in my reading has helped me to understand the world better, to appreciate my place in it, and to recognize the responsibilities I have to make efforts to make the world the better place I believe that it could be.  I know that some people don’t share my appreciation for reading.  They view it as a chore or a waste of time.  Even among those who read, some have different motivations.  Some read as a form of escapism, using fiction to escape unpleasant realities in their lives, if only briefly.  Others dismiss fiction exactly because that how they view it.