Books. When was the last time you read one? Adults, teenagers and children alike all suffer from the same phenomenon; not being able to read a book. I, among everyone else, was introduced to reading at a very early age and although I stuck with it; most of my peers didn’t. The internet is taking the stage and setting a new margin for efficiency, which is soon to become the leader in the way people read. These new reading devices promise to store all your books into one tablet, but is there really anything like the smell of a new book, or the crisp edges of an intriguing novel? It seems that books are just the essence of what once was, but they once provided us the information that search engines like Google offer us today. Our minds are constantly searching, scouring the vast reaches of this world for the easiest and hassle-free way of gathering information, and sadly, books are just not that way anymore.

Now, it seems I can never hang onto the page I am reading. Long, flat pieces of writing don’t interest me in the ways that they used to. Gazing at your collection of books that refill your brain with the memories that each book holds, or getting lost in a bookstore, with every shelf containing a lifetime of entertainment and ideas has become a thing of the past. Reading books solely for entertainment nowadays is considered taboo and is left in the dark. It’s not just me that suffers, many people who once read stories that could not be expressed any other way have been introduced to the fast-paced world of the internet, and have fallen behind on their reading. Many have said their whole library of books have been discarded and replaced by a computer.

Books can paint a picture in the mind; however you can’t get that chance while skimming down a long piece of text, desperately searching for the answer you’re looking for. The calm atmosphere in a book entices you can catches your imagination, making research much more memorable. However, with storytelling, the book lives in your mind. So pick up a book, maybe one that you haven’t read in years, and never let it go.