Everyone has their reasons for liking or disliking reading. Some people enjoy sitting down and losing themselves in the pages of a book while others find the idea of sitting and reading crazy. It doesn’t matter if you like to read or not…you have reasons for it.

I know a lot of people use reading as a way to escape from the real world. I’m no different. I use reading as a way to leave the world behind and find someplace else to live for a bit. There is a little difference between myself and a lot of the other readers out there.

I use reading as a way to live the lives I’ll never be able to see.

I was born with a genetic disease, Cystic Fibrosis, that makes it hard to breathe. My lungs are scarred and damaged. On a really good day, I have 75% of the lung capacity I should have. I spend at least one month out of the year in the hospital, but it’s looking like that will be increasing. I’m going to try as hard as I possibly can to live as long as I can, but I have no illusions about living into my 80s and beyond.

Reading allows me to live lives I won’t otherwise get to experience. I get to be anyone when I read. I can go anywhere. The one life I was given has been filled with challenges, but the hundreds of lives I have experienced  make up for that.

That is why I read. That is why I treasure every book I open. That is why I will never stop reading. I have never-ending gratitude for the authors who have written the books I have lived. Because those authors put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard), I get to live any life I want to. When I finally get to meet some of my favorite authors, there is no amount of thanking them that can get my gratitude across.

I can’t stop reading. If I stop, I will lose those little pieces that make up who I am and who I will be. Going forward in life, I know my health will keep declining. There’s no way around that. But that doesn’t frighten me. As long as I have my books, I can keep going.

That’s why I read. Why do you read?