A lot has happened since the last time you posted your food on Instagram. For one, Guy Montag, from Fahrenheit 451, has officially begun to challenge the society in which he lives. Anastasia Steele, from Fifty Shades of Grey, is beginning to understand that she is not as innocent as she, along with everyone else, thought she was.

In our day and age, we have lost the art of pleasure reading, and that is not completely our fault. It is almost as though books have become shelf decor items. However, I fully understand that college students are busy with class reading assignments, lab work, part-time jobs and laundry, because I fall into the same category. In spite of this fact, we are also familiar with drinking Four Lokos on any given day, watching shows on Netflix, swiping through Tinder and Snapchatting nudes. For this reason, I am not convinced that squeezing in some extra time to read for fun will take away from the swamped schedules that we all have.

In its simplest terms, a standard trade paperback book ranges from approximately 5.5-by-8.5 inches. This means that any standard book should be able to fit in your purse, and most definitely, your backpack. If it seems as though this is too much of a daunting task, bring your book instead of your cellphone with you while you’re dropping some loads on the toilet, pretending to focus on homework in the basement of your laundry room or even while waiting in line for some juicy chicken tacos at the Hamilton Dining Hall.

Reading for pleasure is for people who want to meet and experience the cultures of people from the past. It is for adrenaline junkies, who would give anything to travel back and forth in time and space, not to mention the future, at any time of their choosing. It is for people who feel as though they can feel the weight of the world pushing on their shoulders, and want so desperately to escape from reality.

Growing up in today’s world as opposed to when our parents were growing up, we have been exposed to a limitless realm of technological advancements. Although these advancements have been used, for the most part, to improve and simplify our lives, it has stunted us from growing intellectually. While I know that I am no scientist, when I am placed amongst people that have forgotten how to look up, engage in conversations and eat the food placed in front of them, without feeling the need to snap a photo, I begin to question whether or not people are living in a world of complete satisfaction.

I will admit, getting into the routine of pleasure reading is tough for two main reasons. For one, you have to train your brain to be okay with temporarily leaving the mechanical world behind. Second, you have to open the book and start reading. However, from my own experience, I can confidently declare that reading for fun has benefitted me in ways that cannot be conveyed in this single article.

If that doesn’t convince you, I will provide you with some of the advantages that I have gained through my love for reading. Reading has not only made my college writing courses seem less intimidating, but has also encouraged me to explore novel ideas and expand my vocabulary while writing tough essays on sizable epic poems, like Metamorphoses. Moreover, reading for fun has given me the gift of acquiring universal knowledge, and a better understanding of humankind. From biographies like Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, where Coates writes a letter to his fifteen year old son addressing what it is really like to grow up as an African American man in a society where racism is still prevalent, to my personal favorite dystopian fiction, Brave New World, which almost identically mirrors what our society has become, reading has been my personal mentor and guide growing up.

While operating the fancy devices and social media outlets can momentarily bring us joy, it becomes increasingly harder to go back to the simpler stuff. Substituting Snapchat for Sense and Sensibility can be the difference between living in 1792 with the Dashwood sisters and experiencing life in England, and recording yourself at a frat party to ensure your friends that you are having a blast. No filter can take you to the U.K. with Jane Austen by your side.

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