As a kid, I was not much of a reader. Most people I knew were not really very into reading and considered it a chore most of the time.
It was my freshman year of high school when I discovered a love for books and reading. Now, I do not mean teen drama and science fiction type books. Most people feel interested by these genres. I am referring to books about real life: history, philosophy, politics, psychology, etc.
There was an assembly at my school about a political debate occurring in another area of the world. Although I had heard about this debate many times and it affected me personally, I still did not know the history of the conflict or even what exactly it was all about. The speaker asked the students questions, hoping that somebody knew enough to answer. Out of about 100 kids in that room, only one student was able to answer his questions. That student happened to be sitting next to me. The shame that I had felt at that moment had left me both surprised at my lack of knowledge and upset at myself for not having educated myself earlier. That tremendous shame and embarrassment had been the drive that started my reading books about the political conflict.
However, as I was educating myself about this topic, I realized that books contain answers. Not just answers to history and political questions, but answers about virtually anything. After learning this, I would sit for hours on weekends and even in school reading. I would read books about social psychology, histories of different countries, literature that I found interesting . . . you name it!
I realized that information that people spend a lifetime gathering, I can just read in a couple of days or weeks, depending on how interested I am. The world is open to me. I don't have to look for answers on my own. Rather, I can just pick up a few couple of hundred pages and find the answers right in front of me.
The knowledge that I had gained from reading made me the type of person who was knowledgable about a wide scope of topics. I could now listen to a conversation about the government and understand political terms, or I could notice soothing about the world that I read in some book. My eyes were opened up and I was opening up others' eyes by telling hoers about cool stuff that I learned through reading the right books.
I understand, however, why you still may not be encouraged to pick up a book. Maybe there was nothing you ever really wanted to know about, or maybe you don't have a bunch of questions that you think about continuously. Nonetheless, by reading a book, you will open up a whole different world-the past, future, another's mindset and philosophy of the world, etc.
So go pick up a book that you think you may find interesting and with the mindset that you want to learn something. Everything can change.