The Meaning of Literature

Literature really matters to me because I have learned so much from it. I get to read not just a story, fiction or fact, but really also someones take on life. Regardless the subject matter, you get to see into the heart of the author, and learn their thoughts, how they really feel about what they are writing about. Generally speaking, we write about things that we are passionate about, and I am always interested to find out what other people are passionate about. I know I personally love to talk about what I am passionate about, and I am quite sure that that is a love shared by many other people as well.
For instance, some of my favorite books I will reread often and yet learn something new everytime I go through them. They teaching me something, about myself, the world around me, the author, anything really, and for that reason they are my favorites. I do not want to read something that does not teach me anything, that just repeats something I already know, but instead I want to be taught, to learn, or just to be shown something in a way that I have not seen it before, from a perspective that is not my own.
Also, I love literature just because it lets me escape. When I pick up a book, I quite literally become immersed in the story, to the extent that I can forget myself. I drink in the words, flying through the pages, enjoying every single bit of emotion portrayed through the language. I love feeling like I'm somwhere or someone else, in a life so much different than my own that I could never expect to understand it, and yet at the same time I do, I feel the characters echoing with my heart in one way or another.
When I read, I really try to find some way to internalize it, make it apply to me. Yes I read for fun, or because it is assigned, but I want it to mean something to me as well. I do not want to read it and be done with it, but instead I think a lot about what I read. I try to take it a step further, see into the characters themselves, not just what is represented on the page. A book is far better than a movie to me because I get to see inside their heads, understand them on a level far deeper than what can simply be seen on the surface, and feel that I know them by the time I finish. I learn from them, just as a character grows through the experiences they go through in the story, I find that I learn things myself, not just from the experiences, but in how they handle them in their own way.
I do not think I could honestly say that I have never been changed by a book I have read. Even if it is one that I do not like as much as others, each is full of wisdom, and worth enjoying. I love literature, primarily books, but in general I find that there is something worthwhile in any written word, it is simply up to me as the reader to discover it.