I’m very fortunate to have learned to love reading when I was in elementary school. I started with Goosebumps books by R. L. Stine, which were horror books for kids. They’re laughably scary now, but I remember them having quite an impact on me at the time. They were addictive. I had a few friends who read them too. We’d swap them around and discuss them in school, discussing how stupid the characters were to walk into the abandoned house rumored to be haunted by the vindictive witch. Then I moved onto R. L. Stine’s YA books, the Fear Street Saga.

These books were pivotal in my youth and likely for countless others. I would still suggest reading them today, not Goosebumps, but Fear Street. In hindsight, these were dark books for a kid to read, comprising a tale of betrayal, revenge, and unrequited love. These books did not end happily.

Then there was a period in High School for about a year when I hardly read at all, the time swallowed by socializing, chasing girls, and video games. Then I made a new friend who was an avid reader and thus reignited my passion for reading. We would spend weekends from morning to night at the now closed Border’s books, gathering stacks of books and magazines and lugging them up to the cafe area. Being the poor students we were, we would bring our own food and drink in bags and eat at the cafe. And of course, it was rare for one of us to cough up the funds to actually buy a book.

This period was a turning point for me. I realized everything I wanted to learn could be learned without the help of a school teacher. I discovered that I didn’t need anyone but a book to teach me what I wanted to know. [This is of course discounting the immense value of mentors, though I did not know that then.] I taught myself how to program, studied physics, computer architecture, science, hacking, read fiction, dug into philosophy and more. I realized that school was only for the lazy and those without the mental fortitude to take self-directed education.

I learned that there were few things that excited me more than learning new stuff. Knowledge really was power. Knowledge was the key to unlocking the mysteries of life. The vicious thing about learning is that the more you know, the more you realize how little you know.

I carried this hunger for knowledge with me throughout college and after. Last year I read more books than I ever had in a year and upon reflection, found the experience immensely enjoyable. It really made the year feel like it was an incredibly valuable use of time. Audiobooks have become one of my favorite ways to digest a book, as I now drive over 100 miles each day for work. As I’ve said before in previous blog posts, it’s a great use of “dead time.”

READERS: How did you discover your love of reading? Please let me know in the comments!

The post Learning to Love Reading appeared first on Everet Martins.