Books weren’t always around growing up. I wish I could romanticize the experience by telling you that a wicked authority was destroying books by fire. I wish I could say I was oppressed and stole books from the rubble of said fires. Unfortunately and fortunately my life isn’t that of Montag from Fahrenheit 451. It’s not like libraries weren’t around. It’s not even fair to say my parents would never buy me a book when I asked them for one. The truth is that my family didn’t care about books that much. What’s worse, I hated them. It wasn’t until years later as a twenty-something adult that I grasp just how valuable good books are. They can make the difference between an education an education and illiteracy. Between freedom or shambles. Every time my mom would have me read a children's book I would try to find a …show more content…
This beautiful learn that your best friend can be the devil but you should still understand and forgive them. Likewise if you do something terrible to someone you should try to make it right and eventually forgive yourself. After high school, I worked full time at a grocery store for an unforgivable amount of time. Thankfully I equipped myself with my phone and a pair of headphones to start listening to books, podcasts, and lectures I’ve been yearning to enjoy. George Orwell’s 1984 helped me learn that reading and keeping written records of events is important even in a digital age. I learned about the importance of wartime books and reflecting on the past from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5. I learned that escaping Mars in The Martian seems impossible but manageable and stressful in reality. Probably. Many will critique me and say that listening isn’t really reading. Sure for advanced books like textbooks and documentation, I absolutely agree with this but casual books can actually be more enjoyable. I guess I still feel like a child in a way-- I need to be told things