In these pictures we can appreciate that reading is not always the same. Sometimes, people read for pleasure, as we can see in two of them, for example, at the Boston library, where people are sitting peaceful and enjoying that moment of connection with the book, and in the one on the top, where there is a man lost in his thoughts reading a newspaper. By the way, other pictures show some kids (on the right) and one (on the left) who are reading for learning. This doesn't imply that they are not having fun.

All these four pictures are using paper books, which is the traditional way of reading. On the contrary, the last picture shows us someone reading in a new way of doing it, using the new technologies. This fosters that this person can read whenever he or she wants.

Finally, we can see that there is something in common in all the photos, which is that they are enjoying that moment. Let me infer that they are avoiding themselves from what is surrounding them, and living in those magic places they are discovering through the reading.

Understanding why reading is so crucial to me implies answering several key questions, which are:

1) What texts do you enjoy reading in each language that you speak?

2) Do you choose the same kind of texts or do you read very different things depending on the language? What factors determine your choice?

3) In what format do you read (paper, e-reader, online etc.)?

4) When do you read?

Reading must be a ‘pleasure’, not a ‘pain’ or ‘punishment’. I remember when I was young that we usually read not for enjoyment, which most of the time created the opposite. But after all, I have taken a liking to reading.

In my case, it doesn’t matter if I read into Spanish or English, because the subject matter is always the same. For example, I love reading books related to crime, travel, and horror, the old ones like Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, Dracula, and all that stuff. On the contrary, I also like reading new technologies magazines, websites and everything related to our job. For that reason, as a matter of fact, I read mainly paper and on-line format, although, in the past, I usually read in the Ipad in a Kindle version, which is free.

Nowadays, I read as much as I can, overall, when it is possible because preparing classes takes me too much time using new technologies for my students, for example, activities, classroom...

Apart from being an English teacher, I also teach Spanish Language to my 2º ESO students, and we have a classroom library, where they read every twenty or twenty-five day a book, which sometimes they choose, not only from our own class library, but also from our school library, and finally they must present it to the rest of the class. Sometimes, I do it too, just for showing them what they have to do.

We, as teachers, have the responsibility to foster this habit among our students.