Remember leisure reading?

My third-grade self would be disappointed in me.

She would have expected me to do a lot more reading.

Not that I don’t read. I read all the time. I read textbooks and novels for class. I read the news on different websites. I even read e-mail on my phone.

But none of this reading is for fun. Sure, I enjoy some of the novels for my classes, but I can’t remember the last time I picked up a book that wasn’t for school, or related to something I’m writing or working on, and just read it. For fun.

Third-grade me would be ashamed.

She loved to read. All the time.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I still have a love affair with books and other literature. Just ask my roommates from the last two years — I filled an entire wall in my dorm room with quotes. Quotes about whatever, from whomever, but mostly from books or authors.

I love the way a book can totally engulf you, the way it can take you somewhere completely new and introduce you to people you’ve never met. And by the end, you wonder how you could have not known those characters. It’s rare, but every once in a while there’s that book that is so perfect you can’t put it down. It makes all the dud novels and the dry textbooks worth it.

And when I do have time, such as in the summer, I do read for fun. But this isn’t a column about what I’m reading, because you can find book reviews everywhere and because the book lover I am now knows something that my third-grade self did not know.

Books and literature are all around us. (I’m serious — don’t laugh.)

They’re in the places we shop, from bookstores to megastores such as Wal-Mart.
They’re in our technology, from cell phones to the new iPad. They even influence statues and monuments in parks and cities.

Regardless of whether the idea of reading makes you want to run and hide or if reading is No. 1 on your Facebook interests, literature is a big part of everyday life.
So sit back, relax and let this column inspire you to immerse yourself in a good book — no matter where you are.