No time for books? Are you sure?

When somebody tells me they don’t read because they have no time for books, it makes me want to turn into the Hulk and squash their lying heads. OK, maybe not that extreme.

It also makes me wonder if they are lying to themselves as well as to everybody else.

People make time for the things they love, enjoy or at least are good for them. If you claim not to do something because you don’t have enough time, it simply means you don’t like doing it. “I don’t have time for exercise” or “I don’t have time to cook” or “I don’t have time to read” are all useless excuses. At least be honest with yourself and say: “I don’t WANT to read because I don’t enjoy it/find it boring/think it’s pointless.”

I know this sounds like a senseless rant but I do have a point, so please bear with me.

Are you trying to convince me that you can’t read for 15 minutes every night before you fall asleep? Or that you can’t read while commuting to work/waiting for your child in front of the school/have a cup of coffee/stir the Bolognese sauce (although I don’t recommend that – you might end up with a giant red stain on your favourite Kindle skin just like me)? If president Obama can find time for a daily run and a book, and let me tell you, he has more to do in a day that every other person in the world in a week, then so can you. You just don’t feel like it.

I have set a goal to read at least 50 books this year. I don’t have time to read 250 (although I wish I had!) but I can certainly find time to read 50. That’s less than a book a week. And you are trying to tell me you don’t have time to read A book? In 365 days?

Let me tell you what’s going to happen if you don’t read. Your brain will slowly but surely start to deteriorate until you have nothing interesting to say; your mind will forget what imagination was and you won’t be able to escape your boring little world even if your life depends on it; your eyes will cloud and there will be no spark behind them making you look older that you actually are; your kids will either follow in your footsteps and never touch a book unless they absolutely have to (how could they when they’ve never seen you hold one or even have one in the house) or will hate you for not teaching them any reading ethics.

I can’t imagine my life without a book. I’ve been constantly reading something ever since I was a teenager. I’ve read crime thrillers, chick-lit, romantic dramas, horrors, sci-fi, young adult… Of course, I haven’t liked all the books I’ve read but I’m absolutely certain every single one of them, no matter how cheesy or boring or predictable, has enriched my life in some way. My day would be so much more boring without a book!

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: READ. It doesn’t really matter what. There are so many different kinds of books, there must be something you can take a liking to. But if, in the end of the day, you still don’t want to read, at least have the decency to admit that. Don’t say you don’t have time because that’s just lame. Nobody believes you anyway and you run the chance of meeting the Hulk up close and personal. 

P.S. This rant-like post has been inspired by the World book day. Don’t ask.