My favorite quote to this day, and one I firmly believe, comes from J.K. Rowling: “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book yet.”

People will tell you all the time that they do not like to read. The problem with that is that most of the time, the people who say this just don’t feel like finding a book that they see as “worth their time.” Well, no need to fret. I have come today with a list of top-selling books that may change the way you feel.

Before I share the list, let me just start off by saying why you should read. Reading gives you the chance to escape from reality. You start focusing on the words in front of you, and everything else around you fades away. You’re put into the story maybe as an interested bystander, maybe as one of the characters themselves. Reading gives you the chance to be part of a world world that feels so real that you almost forget that fact that it does not exist. The worst part about finishing a book is getting cut out of a world that you want to be a part of. I haven’t convinced you to pick up a book yet? Hopefully one of the books I tell you about will have you taking a trip to your nearest bookstore.

One of the most important choices when it comes to choosing a book to read is finding a genre that captures your attention. This being said, I am going to start off with a book under the category of my favorite genre: Dystopian Fantasy. Books like these have a very futuristic feel to them, and take place in worlds that are similar to our own, but with rules and ways of living that we have never seen before. One of the most intriguing fictional societies is that among the Factions in the book Divergent by Veronica Roth. Divergent is a book about a society split into five factions or parts: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the smart) and Candor (the honest). When you turn 18, you take what is called an Aptitude Test, and that test will determine which faction among the five that you best fit in. If you do not fit into any of the factions, you are seen as Factionless, and live homeless. This society has had this living process in place for a while now, and it wasn’t until the main character, Tris Prior, came along that she realized how corrupt the process of labeling people based on their personality was. She discovered that they were really all part of a social experiment that was being held by people of a higher power, and decided to fight back against this system. This book won the Goodread Choice Award for Best Young Adult Fantasy. This book is part of a trilogy and has had my heart since the second I started reading it. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a fictional world with a little love story and a whole lot of action.

The next genre that also keeps me up at night: science fiction. The most recent book that I read under this genre was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road takes place in post-apocalyptic times where there is really nothing left in the world except ash, and a few hundred people. The story follows a man and his young son, as they venture across the lifeless earth in search of a safer place to go. The rest of society had been wiped clean as a result of cannibalism and murder. No one really knows why this has taken place, but we see the aftermath and the emotional toll it takes on the two main characters. Their biggest concern on the road is not only staying out of the way of the people who killed the rest of society, but also for surviving the vicious winter storms and finding food that hasn’t been burned to ash or long past expired. The man and his son face horrifying things along their journey, and I would tell you what they encountered but I would rather you just read to find out!

If I could tell you about every genre there is out there, you would be reading forever. This being said, I have selected one more genre to share with you: Memoirs. We covered fictional stories, so now we have to focus on true stories. Memoirs are written by someone who is recollecting their life experiences. The most recent memoir I read was Half a Life by Darin Strauss. The author tells the story of how he had caused the death of one of his classmates when he was younger, while driving his dad’s car. He talks about how the accident happened, and the aftermath of it. He talks about true grief and what it feels like to live your life knowing you took the life of another. Darin goes on to explain to us the realities of human nature, and how we deal with tragic events like his. He tries so hard for so long to live a normal life, and it ends up taking him half of his life to figure out how he can do it. Memoirs are real stories that often have you reaching for a box of tissues. If you are someone who loves to feel and connect with an author through their experiences, memoirs are a great place for you to start.

Overall, do not say you don’t like to read until you have tried a book in every genre there is known, for maybe you just haven’t found the one for you yet. Take a chance and read a book, I promise you’ll be happy you did. Everyone reads for different reasons: they like the concentration, they like the escape, they like the story, or they simply enjoy the act of it. There are also millions of reasons for why people don’t like to read, and I don’t want to hear any of them until everyone has tried picking up a book. Reading has a benefit for everyone, and if you can’t figure out what those benefits are, look it up in a book. I’m sure it’s written somewhere…