My whole life I’ve been told that reading is good for me, because reading makes me smarter and enables me to write better papers; I just read because I like it.  However, it seems as though my whole life I’ve also heard that the kids of my generation don’t read enough.  

Apparently my generation is too busy playing video games that rot their brains, but I haven’t really seen much evidence of this.  As a matter of fact, this summer I learned just how much our generation does read, and I must admit I was rather shocked. Since I spent the summer abroad my summer reading list was shorter than usual, but at four completed novels, I felt pretty good about myself.

However, when I started talking to the UT kids that studied abroad with me, I began to feel rather intimidated.  Some would say “Yeah, I have to go buy some more books today.  I brought seven with me and I just finished the last one,” or “I’m almost done reading all the Harry Potter books in sequence.”  I saw a guy read Slaughterhouse Five in one sitting, on a bus. Wow! All of a sudden my measly four books don’t look so impressive.  

The other night at a party I overheard another girl mention one of my favorite authors and all of a sudden, I’m at a college party talking about prize-winning authors.  I’m rather impressed with our generation and its voracious reading habits.  I know that my friends and I read circles around my parents’ generation.  My mother only reads books that I tell her to and my dad only reads Bass Pro Shop magazines. 

Read on, my collegiate companions, please continue to prove all of those people wrong who say we’re lazy brainless oafs.