Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is “Reasons I Love Reading.” It reminded me of my grandmother who once (during an 11-day power outage) shared with me that she felt sorry for people who don’t read. “What do they do with all their time?” What indeed?

1. Language excites me. A well-turned phrase needs to be shared with whoever is nearby (whether they’re interested or not. Sorry, Rudi.) New words are like candy. And I love how manipulating the way words are put together conveys so much.
2. Waiting with a book is an opportunity to get a few pages in, rather than an opportunity for tedium or irritation.
3. I love being transported to a different time and place.
4. I am not wealthy enough or endowed with enough vacation time to go to all the places I want to visit … except with my library card.
5. A shared love of a story is a shortcut. My college roommate said she knew the first night we’d be friends because I put a copy of Anne of Green Gables on my desk. And seeing people reading the Harry Potter books in the first days after release helped me know there were lots of people who shared something important with me.
6. I can juggle different worlds. At a tense point in the fantasy story? Dive into that romance novel until you’re feeling ready to go on. Someone once remarked they didn’t understand how I could read multiple books at once. “Don’t you get them mixed up?” I replied that I was perfectly capable of not confusing the details of multiple friends and this wasn’t especially different.
7. Books can fill in for friends (for a little while) when you’re feeling lonely and out of your element. When we moved to D.C., we brought a carload of stuff with us at a time. I had a box of books I insisted had to come with me first off.
8. Your books tell me about you. The first thing I do on going to someone’s home for the first time is to look at their bookshelves.
9. It’s the best way to learn things! I mean, sure YouTube is absolutely faster if I want to learn how to knit an i-cord. But if I want to learn the history of knitting or why microaggressions are so virulent? I’m turning to a book.
10. Sometimes, a magical book will make you feel seen in a way that nothing else does.

Why do you love to read?

Oh, and while I have you bookish people here: Are there spoilers to Six of Crows if I start reading it before I finish watching season one of Shadow and Bone on Netflix? I started listening to it last year and quickly realized it would be a book I’d enjoy more in print.