Loneliness Does Not Exist With a Book as Your Companion

Reading is an escape, but also an arrival; I can escape my own monotonous illusions of the world and arrive at beautiful realizations about the wonders of a seemingly simple existence.  To read is at once to be completely enthralled in something outside your own life, while also introducing introspection as to how the topic connects to you personally. Manguel writes "Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge" (11). This statement speaks to me on a personal level; when I open a book and it can take me out of the world that I often find myself drowning in, I am desperately thankful to receive that "refuge." I can sit back and worry about my favorite character and suddenly end my stress over my own daily worries and faults. 

The power of reading lies simply in the act itself, while maintaining its power even when restricted. A restricted book is entirely more enticing than the average; simply because someone found its message to be so meaningful that the public must not be allowed access to it! Manguel recounts the time of Argentina's censor on books that were deemed communist material (21). These books, and those other countless tales that have been on the receiving end of censorship, represent a repression of knowledge. Words. Writing. Reading. These hold a special power; no one would restrict them if they held none. Why have so many tales been told over the suppression of these powers? Perhaps to warn readers away from a world where ideas are controlled, and creativity halted. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Linda Sue Park's When my Name was Keoko, and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief are just a few of the many books written to warn their readers of the dangers of a society restricted in their reading. 

What does reading mean to me? Freedom, first and foremost. I can read what I want, when I want, and gain the knowledge of whatever I so desire; is that not an absolute feeling of freedom? What does reading mean to you?

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