People often ask me why
I prefer my nose in a book
Instead of the company
So readily around me

I answer them with another question:
Why not?

Has a book betrayed you?
Hurt you?
Cheated you?
Started wars because of beliefs?

Has a book ever called you names?
Taunted you?
Teased you?
Trapped you in a corner?

And they say no
But a book cannot love
Nor can it understand feeling
As much as a human can

At this I laugh
For a book
Is one of the few things on Earth
That understands feeling so strongly

You see before you several people
You know cannot exist
Yet feel so real
They just might be

The paper and ink
Feels as much as
Flesh and blood
Tears, Laughter, Hatred, Love

If books cannot understand feeling
Then why do I find myself
Crying, Laughing, Loving, Despairing
With them?

People often ask me why
I prefer the world in pages
Instead of the world
So readily around me

I them answer with another question:
Why not?

Have you not wanted to travel?
To distant places?
Dimensions?
Time periods?

Have you never wished for a different place?
One unreachable by land or sea?
The places in your fantasy?
The lands in your dreams?

And they say they have
But books cannot take you
To other places
Like our world so readily can

At this I laugh
For a book
Is one of the few things on Earth
That takes you to more places a boat ever could

You see before you
A world that cannot possibly exist
Yet you find yourself there
Inside the world printed on pages

The paper and ink
Is just as real
As water and earth
For those same things reside within

If books cannot take me places
Then why do I find myself
In different places
With every word I read?


People often ask me why
I love books so much anyway
When I have plenty of activities
So readily around me

I do not say anything and I do not laugh
I’m too busy feeling and travelling
And laughing and flying
And journeying
And crying
And loving

Being sent on a dangerous quest
Befriending a Dragon
Saving a Princess
Resting at my journey’s end
On the very last page of my book

And when I close the cover
I look at them and smile
I simply tell them:
I’ve done it all