Reading literature is quite simply an everyday thing, yet it is anything but a simple endeavor. Anyone can pick up a book and begin reading, but are they really reading? Some would say a book is just a compilation of words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, and chapters. One must look beyond the crinkled pages, past the second natured-ness of language itself.

Literature should provide memorable experiences, experiences so real that they feel real. Literature is an escapist’s heaven as readers can immerse themselves so deeply into the setting of a book that they forget they are still sitting at home. Reading a book is an extraordinary way to meet strangers, “see” exotic places, and palliate oneself in stints of stress.

For some readers, however, books are simply a means of killing time, something used to fill the awkward moments between periods of activity. Millions of published books rain from the presses each year, devoured by these logically devoid readers. A book should be given as much effort and time as any other object of considerable gravity as literature is the written record of humanity. “When literature is not remembered, it is nothing.” Literature should never be overlooked, as each and every book is a portal to an entirely new world and possibilities.