Delicate footsteps echo through the building; hushed murmuring breaks through the silence, creating a sense of hidden knowledge and untold tales. If you listen close enough, you can hear the soft rustle of pages in a steady rhythm; almost as though there is a symphony of imagination playing all around you. Walking past aisles and aisles, enormous bookshelves loom on all sides while you continue your search. What will it be this time? Science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, biographies? The possibilities are as endless as the universe.
        To your right sits a girl curled up in a chair, intently focused on the novel in front her. Sunlight pours through a nearby window and makes her hair seem almost alive with color, copper, browns, and blondes of all kinds radiate against the dull green chair beneath her. Bright blue eyes glance up to meet yours and quickly snap back down to the novel resting against her knees; the story inside the novel was too alluring for her to take the time to pull away and say, "hello.” As the seconds pass by and she stays situated in the same position -- unaware of your presence now -- you can not help but wonder what is so fascinating about that particular piece of literature. What makes it so interesting that she can not keep her blue eyes off of the pages?

I am the girl lost in the world created by words. I am that girl relaxing in the dull green chair, no longer worried about the passing of time, as I am unable to do anything but continue reading. “Reading is stupid. Why would you read? It is boring and a waste of time,” is something I hear often, but I disagree. Reading is my solace; it opens up endless worlds that I can escape from my stress and anxiety brought on by everyday life to. I could be trekking up the side of Mount Everest beside a loyal friend and a guide who does not speak english but has a kind and gentle look in his eyes that conveys great wisdom, or I could be traveling back in time to the 1800’s, when ladies wore ballroom dresses and petticoats and were as white as snow in fear of being mistaken as a peasant with a darker complexion that labored all day in a field; the power of words is astounding.