"Read in order to live."

Nearly a month has gone by and I have hardly touched a single book. I've read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, but that is all. I am feeling the toll that what not reading takes on me. I haven't not read in so long that I had forgotten this happens. Whenever I stop reading for a while, there are a few things I do not like that slowly begin to happen. They rather depress me and I had not realized until just very recently that this is what has been going on.

One of the things that happens is that I am more likely to slip when talking. I have more tongue-twists when I have not spoken any words that would typically create them. Another thing that happens is I begin to lose words from my vocabulary in not just speech but in writing as well. I will feel as I type that fewer words are inhibiting my word bank. I may typically view the difference in my quality of writing through graded essays as well when I read less, but I am no longer enrolled in classes so this one is not affecting me this time around.

It must surely sound crazy to some people that by stopping reading I will notice such things as I do and so quickly, but I am well-tuned and throughout my life have always noticed the difference reading makes. It improves one's speech, writing, and settles one's mind as they can remember what word it is they are trying to think of. My learning disability, I was told, is a partial one, that I am neither here nor there with either those who are ordinary and those with full-blown learning disabilties. I was not given the help I needed and spend many years struggling not knowing I could cure myself with merely the reading of books. It's sad that I didn't discover this till college, but reading does so much for me, and to read regularly is something I coin as taking a dose of medicine. I know what it is I must do to receive a dose of words and I think it is time I pluck a book from one of my shelves, turn back the cover, and begin to read. I think I will do this very soon.