Historians argue that reading has been a part of human life as early as the first civilization. In fact, having an alphabet is one of the qualifiers to be a civilization. Slowly but surely, stories started being recorded on scrolls; they were read out loud to an audience because most of the audience were illiterate. While this method of storytelling is not as popular today as it was before, audiobooks and podcasts essentially have the same effect. To truly discover how crucial reading is to our society, we must look at how it has adapted and influenced modern times.

 Today, books and reading have a major impact on all different areas of life. Reading can appear in multiple forums, like magazines, picture books, pamphlets, and comic books. With modern technology, books not only appear on paper, but also electronically on devices. Companies like Amazon have made bundles of money selling online books because they are able to be bought almost instantaneously and do not take up any space on shelves.

 Books can extend over many various genres including romance, adventure, nonfiction, and science fiction. Through reading, you can escape to a different world and learn about interesting topics. However, reading also influences the movie industry. Basing movies off of books has become more popular in this day and age. Although these movies tend to start conflict over which form is more accurate or better, they increase number of teenagers reading books. Movies are not the only type of entertainment that are affected by books, video games and tabloids generally involve some forms of a storyline.

 Due to the increased production of some forms of entertainment, mainly TV shows and movies, books are not as popular anymore. This can be an issue since reading can improve vocabulary, creativity, and attention spans. However, English classes which read books throughout the year promote reading rather than sitting on a couch and watching an episode of a TV show. There are even some holidays that encourage reading. For example, Read Across America just occurred on March 2, Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The holiday entails the reading of books, especially Dr. Seuss books, in schools, libraries, and households throughout the United States.

 Even though the way books look has changed from papyrus to bound paper books to ebooks, reading will always endure. It might look different than it did when computers were not around, but the stories that books contain send people on a journey far away and inform them of something they did not previously know. Although people are now turning to other forms of entertainment, there will always be those who read because as sophomore Ashley White said, ”I love that reading can open your eyes to new ideas and concepts that you never could have imagined otherwise.”