At first, I only read words-on-physical-pages books. And I devoured them. From my discovery of them in elementary school until I graduated high school, I would read whole shelves of books without few breaks. I would continuously request books at my school libraries (it’s thanks to me that CNB Middle School has all the Valdemar books).

In university, my reading dropped off drastically under my heavy course load, but I discovered a new form of story-absorption: webcomics. From Grrl Power to Slightly Damned to The Phoenix Requiem to Questionable Content, I devoured them just as I had novels (and that is only a very small sampling. I still read a ridiculous number of webcomics, and I read less than I used to).

Grrl Power

From webcomics, I moved to manga. Full Metal Alchemist and Psyren rocked my world. I read even more manga, later. And, as is natural, manga led to anime. Around the same time, owning my own computer (and not just sharing my parents’, like in highschool), allowed me to delve into the world of TV shows. We didn’t have TV as I was growing up. My parents thought it was largely a waste of time (and I largely agree), but there was and are some incredible shows out there. Criminal Minds drew me in and held me.

Psyren

In short, the medium mattered less than the stories themselves. Each medium allows for different expressions. Manga tell a story very differently than webcomics, as novels tell very different kinds of stories than TV shows. Just look at book-to-movie or manga-to-anime translations. But a good story, and good stories, are good no matter than media.

Of course, we’ll always have favorites: for me, nothing can compare to a good book. But diversity is important too. Each medium is a perspective. We can only benefit from seeing the world through more perspectives.