Of all things, I like books best.

What You'd Choose If Nobody Watched

There's something almost defiant about this simple declaration from Alcott. In a world that asks us constantly what we should want—success, money, status, the right experiences—she's saying the thing she loves most costs almost nothing and fits in your pocket. Books don't demand your productivity. They don't need you to be impressive or connected. They just ask you to show up and pay attention.

What makes this resonate now is how countercultural it's become. We're drowning in content that's designed to be consumed quickly, rated, and forgotten. Social media trains us to want things that are flashy and immediate. A book, by contrast, asks something radical: that you sit still, that you let someone else's thoughts live in your head for hours, that you resist the urge to skip ahead. In that resistance, something real happens. You're not just passing time—you're becoming someone different.

The quiet steadiness of "of all things" matters too. Not "books are important." Not "everyone should read." Just this: when given everything, this is what I choose. That kind of honest preference, stated without apology, is its own kind of freedom—the freedom to know yourself well enough to say what actually matters to you.