Why Do I Read....?

I will read forever to feed my need for exploration and adventure.  I will continue to read to experience places, lifestyles and far-away-lands that I won't be able to travel to in person.  Reading opens doors, puts wind in my sails and helps me take flight.  I will read to escape, to relax and to be invigorated and inspired.  I will read because I can and because by reading I am not stagnant. I read to give my self the chance to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, see points of view beyond my own and expand my small piece of humanity into a world-wide stage.  I read for myself, to feed my imagination and stretch the creativity that stirs within myself.  I read to teach my children and to give them stories and lessons that I cannot offer from my own limited experience.  I read to learn from others so that I do not have to walk some of the paths of saddness and sorrow that they have struggled through, but I can learn the lessons from the things that they teach me.  I read because it reminds me there are such things as lands of make believe and "happily ever afters".

(***This is just a little paragraph I wrote to enter a contest to win a Nook from Barnes and Noble....not that I'll win, but sometimes it's a good reminder to ask ourselves why we do something.  Why do YOU read? Jot down your reason and even take a second to enter the contest!)