I am reading, it gives me the more gooder words in chatting, then the head talking too, they get differenter, many new head talks for me. Books yes!

Books do make me alone. Life is far away, with people too.

It takes you to places unknown.

I love the escapism and calming qualities of reading. I love leaving my own crappy life behind to experience another. Or sometimes enjoying wish fulfillment. The only guilt I experience is how I turn to books to cope rather than try and figure out ways to make my real life better. I’ve just sort of given up.

Because it numbs the pain.

Every time when I finish reading chapter, I am already excited to read the next one. I love that "unknown" feeling. Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it brings something that I've never felt before.

Reading a good book makes me feel connected to other people, like I'm plugged into a whole new way of thinking. Really good books leave me with ideas and concepts that can stay with me forever.

I often feel a little despondent when I haven't read anything in a while. I used to read more than I do now, just as a matter of course. Now life gets in the way, and other pastimes are more convenient. But they don't leave me as satisfied as a good book.

Came here to say it works like drugs lol

Fun. I like having fun.
Now, I don't mean I only ever read happy books, but I enjoy ones where they have adventures and crazy exciting stuff happens.
I just get excited when there are big battles or chases or something cool. I also really love creatures, like monsters and fantastic animals. Ruins too!

I don't know, man, it's just the excitement of knowing that things that can't happen in real life can happen in a book.

I love to read for a number of reasons, escapism being among them. I also love to learn new things, or gain more information on a topic I don't know a great deal about, but more... it keeps me challenged, informed, and entertained. Though I've felt guilt over reading when there were plenty of other things I should have been doing.

I don't think I read for escape, I just really appreciate art. I love books for storytelling, characters, prose, and the creative freedom. I love that you don’t really need anybody’s input on how you put your story together as an author, besides maybe your editor and publisher, but even then, you have a lot more freedom. A director of a film or TV show has to contend with a crew of thousands, which can be disastrous. I think if you want to tell a good story with rich characters, books will always be the best way to do that. There’s almost no end to the detail and depth you can include, and it’s literally the most affordable way to create art.

Because it allows me to know and understand in just a matter of hours or days that which took years even decades of a thinking person's life to learn, figure out and condense into written words. Books are my cheat sheets in life's great exam.

Mostly because movies and tv shows are so sexed up or just have over the top drama.

I like blockbuster action movies, but that’s about it, when it comes to all other genres I prefer literature. If I have to see another bleak Scifi movie about how dangerous space is, I’m going to lose my mind. I’d rather read about progress in humans expansions (like cold as ice, or the expanse, etc).

But even the expanse tv show was too much sexual tension, too dramatic, and idk. I didn’t like the show. I like the books though.

Yea, the road and flowers for Algernon are really good for escaping the crushing sadness of existence /s

Escapism while learning things. The perfect way to spend time alone.

I just like activities that engage my mind, like video games and reading. There’s no real great reason why I read, I just find it relaxing and I like it better than zoning out to TV.

Why would you feel guilty using it to escape reality? That’s like the main function of entertainment as a whole.

Yes I read even when I have tv on will look at heard something I am interested in it

I enjoy reading because it allows me to learn stuff that I never learnt at school, such as American history which is one of my favourite things to read about

I love stories about interesting people, places, and events. Real or imagined. Books can deliver these stories in a way that other mediums can't.

Escapism is a big benefit! I also find that I have a lot of random knowledge because I read so much.

I find it more poignant than movies. Because describing emotions makes me feel it more than a facial expression from an actor. Fantasy in particular books can be more deep and immersive than movies because they can show things like for example how casting magic feels, rather than just flashing lights or something.

I love reading because it gives me a rare opportunity to explore my own imagination and be sucked into an interesting world.

Its honestly a lot of fun imagining what the characters look like and what their intentions may be.

It's a healthy habit to have. A read a lot (a lot!) of non fiction because I like learning. I read in 4 different languages, which helps enriching my vocabulary. I use fiction to escape but also to find right answers and right questions to my problems. I sleep much better when I read before going to bed

The same reason Carl Sagan here highlights, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

I like this description - (the unknown feeling.) it’s fun when you find that one book that hits you like a hurricane. We’ve all experienced it, and we’re constantly seeking that same high from an insanely great story.

Same reason I love music, movies, tv, etc…

#Stories

I love a story. In any format.

Because it's fun.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Nonfiction: It's SO much faster than watching a video, I can't even tell you. It's like: the information goes directly and instantly into my brain and I don't have to wait around for any gab about subscribing and mashing that like button.

Fiction: just like a movie but you can stick it in your purse and dive into it whenever you have a minute. Plus you get to enjoy the author's use of language, which is a sensory experience in itself.

It's one of the few activities that quiets my brain. I am able to focus just on the words and creating the picture in my head. I usually can't block out the 1000 thoughts going on in my head with most other activities. Reading and playing music are the only two I've found so far. I can feel my brain just relax and I feel so calm when doing these two things.

get away from the fking world

Reading is meditative for me. A good book demands 100% of my mental attention so I'm unable to pay tax to all the bullshit in my life

Because I like stories !

i love stories and people

I love getting to know a characters internal thoughts and feelings. Unless a tv show has an internal dialogue you don’t get this and the characters feel kind of flat and one dimensional. Book characters are just so much more rounded. I think I prefer books too because I’m legally blind (extreme tunnel blindness) so when watching tv or a movie I miss a lot of the scenery and body language whereas with a book it’s described to me and I can imagine it.

Tbh I’ve mostly gravitated towards reading since TV hasn’t been great in recent years. I know that’s a huge generalisation but with the streaming model of pumping out shows where every episode and every season ends on a cliffhanger to encourage you to binge the whole show in one go, you just don’t get satisfying endings anymore and it just feels like starting a show is a huge commitment. Some shows just get cancelled and you’re left with a cliffhanger as the actual ending. I just want a self contained story that is fully realised and ‘done’ by the end.

Like most people here I love the escapism.

I love leaving my world and entering a new one within the book, I love trying to shock and scare myself, I love learning new things and meeting new people (the characters)! I get a lot of excitement from books that differs greatly from movies or TV and I think it's cos I almost have to create the world and the people myself in my head with the descriptions.

What has helped me is draw inspiration from books to improve aspects of my life. I finished reading the Mistborn series the other day. And there's this character, Kelsier, who's been through A LOT of shit but he always smiles. He's so positive and always tries to turn a negative situation into something positive and he never gives up. I found that really inspiring. It gave me a motivation boost.

It helps me to escape.

I live with a very horrible and painful neuromuscular disease. I live with extreme (if going by the 1-10 hospital scale for normal people) 7 on a good day.

Reading helps me escape this shitty and f##ked up world. I've rediscovered a love for reading after being given a kindle for an early birthday present. I've read more books in 8 weeks than I have my whole life (34) (voluntarily) it no longer hurts to hold a book. I am really loving reading and I can't get enough of it.

It really does help the person live a thousand life's as to one of a non reader.

Reading takes me places. I learn thing when I read.

I’m multi-track drifting!

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