You walk into a restaurant with a huge line, surprised that your favorite place has a bunch of people here this early in the morning. The person behind the counter tells you the wait is twenty minutes max, giving you that look that all workers give when they think they know you won’t wait that long for food. You decide to stay and wait, stepping back to find a place to stand or sit awkwardly. Do you take out your phone and surf some kind of social media page, or do you take out a book to read?
Phone people have their phone. You need that little thin rectangular box of plastic, glass and electronic parts to keep in contact with those important people. Though nothing’s wrong with that. You would most likely go to social media pages or play games when bored, right?
Book people tend to carry books with them if they know that they are going somewhere with a long wait. Often times, we feel lost if we don’t have one on us and can become extremely bored. Rather than being bored, we bring out the paperback we’d tucked under our arm on the way in and begin to read from where we left off.
“I would be prepared with a book because then it doesn’t seem quite as rude as when you’re staring at your phone. I would much rather the person I’m with be reading a book than staring at their phone and I think the other person would probably prefer that too,” said junior Kierra Grado.
Phones are addictive and provide many more distractions than a book in your hands, which is easier to put down versus your phone.
There are the options of having a kindle with you or books on your phone, which can be helpful in this case. Going freehanded without anything to weigh you down seems like an easier option. That’s fine, it is your choice. Though staring at a phone or screen for too long can produce a strain on your eyes and cause them to become dry as we blink less.
Think about the last time you picked up a book that you enjoyed. Is there something you wish to escape from right at this moment, but have nothing around you that you can use to submerse yourself from the reality of the world around you?
“No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story.  A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax,” said Lana Winter-Hebret who wrote “10 Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day.”
Reading a good book has it’s benefits. It’ll keep you equally distracted and entertained from that cellular device and the real world going on around you. With time and practice, eventually you’ll be able to block the noise around you as you get into that good book in your hands.
The only negative to reading is that you get connected to the storyline and the characters. If the author deems one single character’s life useless, they will kill them off. You will very likely get mad at the author and swear never to read their books again, only to find yourself many days later checking out a different book written by that same author. It’s just a price you’ll have to pay for reading any single story written by someone who only wants their stories to be read, even if that means losing your favorite fictional character to a hysterical stalker with a knife.
Reading has it’s ups and downs in every aspect, but it’s far more enticing than that cellular device. Picking up any book is just another beautiful story waiting to be read. So get out there, find yourself a good book and lock yourself in your room for an amazing adventure that is just waiting for your eyes to suck in every word on its yellowed or white pages.