Happy Tuesday everyone! As it is Tuesday, it is time for a Top Ten Tuesday update. Top Ten Tuesday is an original blog meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and is currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s given topic:  Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books

As the United States is about to celebrate Thanksgiving, it is also time to pay tribute to books. Ever since I was younger, I have been a voracious reader. I started with magazines and encyclopedias before eventually switching to works of fiction during my senior year in high school. From that point on, there was no turning back. Here are some of the reasons why I am eternally grateful to books.

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1. Books provided me an escape from the tediousness of my quotidian existence. They provide a reprieve from my tumultuous realities. Some books even provide a means of entertainment. I know that many can relate to this.

2. Books and reading made me think critically. They made me reevaluate my beliefs and my ideas of the world. They made me confront my belief systems. Because of books, I create new ideas while I dismantle old ones. Not everything is as it seems, I now understand that.

3. Books are seminal in pushing the boundaries of my imagination. They made me think not only critically but also creatively.

4. I learn new words. Ever since I started reading, my vocabulary has expanded exponentially. Words like fathom, seminal, quotidian, and ubiquitous, among others, are now integrated into my own writing and even daily conversations.

5. I get to visit different places, both fictional and real. This is the thing about reading. Books take me to places I have never heard about while they also walk me down familiar alleys, at least familiar from images captured in magazines and encyclopedias. I also get to visit different worlds such as the Middle Earth, Hogwarts, and the Universe, among others. Again, reading pushes the limits of my imagination.

6. In transporting me to different places, books allow me to learn about different people and their cultures. I learn about the history of different places, stories that I otherwise would have not known about if I hadn’t read books. Books are wells of information and I am grateful to them for this.

7. I meet people who inhabit my mind and imagination. Yes, they may be fictional but they have been injected into my veins. I learn about their plights, their triumphs, what makes them tick, and what makes them laugh. The human psychological landscape is complex, to say the least. I learn from them. There is a vicarious experience while there are also images that made me reevaluate myself,

8. In a nutshell, books and reading, overall, have allowed me to understand the world, the people around me, and even myself better. They are integral in the creation and enhancement of my own belief systems. There are just so many reasons why I am grateful to books but no superlative can fully capture their impact on me. Nevertheless, I am eternally grateful that I discovered the pleasures of reading books.