A Reading Nook is a little slice of Heaven.

A few days ago it occurred to me that I hadn't read a single novel in almost a month. There were many contributing factors of course (The first round of fall exams being one of the bigger ones), but to be honest, the greatest one was the internet. In an age of instant gratification entertainment, I had subconsciously pushed recreational reading to the bottom of my priorities list.

I'm sure many of us fall into that trap, reading an 800-page behemoth seems like a bit of a chore compared to surfing a plethora of stupid websites, or spending a few hours enjoying our own guilty pleasures (Mine being Civilization games). So today after chastising myself for being so apathetic, I decided to grab my old standby, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and search the campus for a good nook to disappear from the world for a few hours. I found a lovely row of stuffed chairs on the fourth floor of the campus library with a fantastic view (see pic), and I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be in that spot, suffering from a literature induced coma, for many of the coming months. I always feel so much more relaxed after enjoying a good book, and in an all too stressful world, its a great escape that doesn't involve chugging vast amounts of liquid bread like many of my classmates.