by Nicholas Stitt

Created on: September 21, 2009

My middle and high school years were punctuated, more frequently than I ever wished, with the same advice about watching television; stop doing it. More accurately, stop doing it as much, and more specifically, put down that darn remote and go do your homework or read a book.

Being "forced" into reading always made things worse for me, and I'll bet many college students or adults can relate. The whole cirriculum of school is structured around mandatory reading assignements, and this trend continues right up until you cross that stage and snag that diploma. Even when the course material is interesting to you, reading volumes can be strenuous, even fatiguing. I think we all know that one amazing person who was gifted with infinite patience and attention span and regularly digests a book in a Saturday afternoon, but we all know many more friends that just can't, or don't. Getting the important information in life, like updates on current news or commentary on events can be done much more quickly with a television. Even the art of escape is made quicker and easier with video games or channel surfing.

But there's good reason books have been around longer than TV, and though our busy lives might make sitting with a novel seem impossible, the benefits of this, even a few minutes per day, are incredible. Now, remember all those books you were forced to read in school?

Go ahead and forget about them.

Seriously, just pretend those books you hated aren't there. Take a trip to the library or used bookstore and peruse the aisles. Walk in the door feeling like you're required to read nothing, but are there because you want to read something. Pick it out. Anything will do.

And I do mean anything will do. While watching television may seem like it's stimulating you're imagination-I've come away from plenty of TV shows with my head swimming-there's one hitch that TV cannot drop, and that's the visual box your mind is put into. Because TV paints all the pictures for you, it's impossible for your mind to stretch as far as it would have while reading a book. In black-on-white text, there's no feasible way an author could describe every detail, so your mind has to work with the important ones to fill in the rest. That's how reading causes those movies in your head we tell schoolchildren are so appealing. When your brain scripts these movies, the experience is very intimate. This is how books "touch our hearts," and we come away with strange mixes of emotions long after we've put

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