Take a look in a book

What is the last really good book you read?

Please note: I didn't ask "What's the last book you had to read for class?" I mean a book that you went to the bookstore and bought, went all the way to the library to borrow, or even borrowed from a friend or ordered online. That book that looked good, so you picked it up on your own and read it from cover to cover just because you enjoyed it.

Can't remember?

Well, I'm here to remind you that books are out there for more than classwork that—let's be honest—your chance of reading is only 50/50 anyway; a teacher assigns these things, but it's not like you really care about reading a textbook about Czechoslovakian government, and they couldn't possibly give you something interesting to read, right? It's safer to just not do it and play "Call of Duty" instead.

Believe it or not, they are still printing new books even now for your entertainment. Chances are, at least a couple of them are good. There are books of every genre out there.

Do you like country or western? Try Louis L'Amour. Like Science Fiction? Try Ursula K. LeGuin or China Mieville. Young Adult? "Harry Potter," "Chronicles of Narnia" or "Wicked." War novels? "Flags of Our Fathers." Classics? "Dracula" or "Wuthering Heights." Crazy, intense, unstable nonfiction? "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Historical biography? The list goes on.

I don't care what you're reading, be it Leo Tolstoy or the "Berenstain Bears." Everyone should pick up a good book and get involved in a world bigger than your T.V.

You want to include media? Try reading a book before you watch the movie or series and then see what you think of it. I think you'd be shocked by how different they can be (like Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein") or maybe by just how close they really are (think all eleven and a half hours of "Lord of the Rings").

Using a lack of time isn't a good excuse either. It's something you have to dedicate time to, just like hanging out with friends or going to the rec center.

It's not the easiest thing to do—it's not video games where you can sit and stare thoughtlessly for four hours—but you can sit for four hours and be sucked into a creative story that you imagine, not played out for you on a screen.