I don’t really know how it happened.

One moment I’m speed walking through each aisle in Target, searching for my mother who seems to disappear every time I turn my back from her.

Next, I find myself in the book aisle doing research on a book called “Red Queen” by Victoria Aveyard. I wasn’t even browsing for a book to begin with. I was simply walking past them when the book cover stood out to me. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, I found myself interested in this alienated object which some would dread to pick up.

I remember being at the cash register and questioning whether or not I was actually going to pick up this book and read it. Like actually read it and not read it because it was part of an assignment for class.

Long story short, I bought the book. I read it, and I ended up loving it. It made me ask myself ‘what the heck have I been missing out on all this time? This is great!’

It’s not that I hated reading before or anything absurd like that. I mean it’s me were talking about.

I, Melanie De Anda, who never let a Barnes & Noble coupon go to waste in fear that I would miss out on good savings. The thing is, although I have always genuinely enjoyed reading, it had started to feel like a chore. Which led me into a major reading slump that lasted to the point where I didn’t quite consider myself a reader anymore.

Continuing on, the next day, I ended up buying the next book in the series called “Glass Sword”, along with an another book by Kendare Blake called “Three Dark Crowns.” This right here was the moment when my love for books erupted. After I had finished those two books, I made sure to keep up with the latest releases of similar genres that peaked my interest.

Eventually the books began to pile up in towering stacks upon my desk and I realized that I just might be in need of an actual bookshelf.

Truth is, I had become absolutely enthralled with books from that moment on. Once again, my interest that seemed so long forgotten and lost, resurfaced. I had rediscovered my love for them once more and felt whole.

It made me wonder why I ever stopped reading in the first place when there were so many amazing books out there in need of reading.

I wish more people realized that books are so much more than bounded pieces of paper. Sometimes you learn valuable lessons through books. Whatever genre it is you happen to be reading, there’s always a lesson to be learned and a new concept to grasp.

You learn to analyze situations that eventually help you catch on to things that you wouldn’t normally notice in your real everyday life. To tie it all together, books are so much more than what they appear.