“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” –
-Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
I’d like to believe that those of you reading this actually enjoy reading. Possibly you spend a good deal of time reading even. Maybe you just got some new audiobooks (yes, these can count).
Or maybe not. It could be that you are failing in reading and you don’t seem to fathom why. “But I used to love reading!” is what you tell people. “I can’t seem to find the time to read these days.” Oh, so that’s what we’re going with then.
Don’t worry, I have also done this but I know that it does nothing to make me read. If I want to read, no one is stopping me from picking up a book and reading it. I love to get lost in a great story. It reminds you of the wonderful writers, most of who are unknown, that have not given up on their dream. If they haven’t, who says you should?
Sure, you might say you don’t want to write but you could change your mind one day. You might do something amazing and people will pay you great sums to write a memoir. Maybe they’ll make a movie about your life that is then not your life anymore. Anyway, a bit of a far reach but just know that you cannot stop trying because it might be too hard.
Besides anyone can self-publish, as anyone who writes on WordPress or other blogs knows though the likelihood of writing the “Next Great American Novel” is probably not achieved through your own means. As much as you might try.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read. Thanks for remembering that “hey, reading isn’t so bad after all!” That’s right, it’s not so bad. How, about we all try doing more of it?
That’s what she wanted to be. That’s how she saw herself when she walked the halls of this place. People loved her here. They thought she was royalty. They had no idea.
In a place where few people understand one another, the silent author finds solace in knowing that she will always be revered in the library. Readers will always have your back.
***
There’s a thing about books that makes me want to keep reading them. I’ve read so many books and I still have so many that I want to read. There are so many books that I think I would like then start reading and decide I do not. The way that libraries makes me feel is happy. The way that libraries remind me that it is ok to enjoy books is a real joy no doubt.
Watching children read in a children’s section is rare these days, because of the computers in there. Which have reading games on them, so I’m not that mad. Reading is always a new learning experience. Usually, it reminds me why I think so complexly in the first place. Why I refuse to stop reading no matter how busy I get. I’ve done some audiobooks and some are good, especially when read by the author while others are not. There is something about books that is hard to define. That is hard to describe. I wish that I could find greater words but if you are reading this with glee then books are part of your life.
Unfortunately, I haven’t read as much as I would like lately. This year even. I could make more excuses about how I was doing something else, but the truth is I usually am not. As much as I love reading, I also love a good story. Sometimes it just so happens that those stories are in the form of tv shows. So obviously I have to watch the show for the sake of good stories, then right? Of course. This is how it goes then.
I love good stories and books that captivate me more that I do movies that are based on them. Take Divergent, for example. The Hunger Games. I will indulge in the movies, but reading the book for the first time will always hold a special place for me. Reading about a character that died breaks your heart, but you read on with a heavy heart to find someone else dead. It’s terror and you want to throw the book across the room. Sometimes you do. When characters fall in love or out of love you are wracked with how it will turn out because it matters. How they fare will distract you from the truth. The truth is that great books are not romantic, some are but they remind you of real life too. The movies do all the fluffy romance that doesn’t give you the same satisfaction. Books will always win in that regard.
So yeah. Read book. Read in general. You say you do, but you probably don’t. So thanks for starting that goal on the right foot and reading this stellar post.
I can’t talk about the joy of reading enough. It’s a joy. To read something that has a plot and gives you a reason to want to keep reading and not stop or even to want to read whatever comes next. Whatever comes after and whatever reminds you that this feels nice. This is what you want to read. Most definitely. So, whether you are reading by way of an ebook or long-form non-fiction piece, you are letting yourself escape into that moment of heaven for your eyes.
A good book is all you need to feel weightless sometimes. It’s all you need to remind yourself that things that you thought were hard are not as hard after all. Things can be amended, decisions can be altered and choices can be made based on how you think. What perspectives you have and the worldview you have may depend on this. The openness you have with that worldview will show more of you as a person than anything else ever could. How you think about world leaders, for instance could be shaped by what you think about the laws of government and republic vs. democratic and whether the two are the same. Is democracy a myth? Does the perfect society exist and if so, where is it hiding and nestling that we can’t find it? Do citizens of said place have access to our resources and do they know what’s going on in the world? It might be weird to think about, but people judge people based on what they have read or heard. It is not often what people have seen, because we say we have “seen something” when we haven’t seen enough to know anything. The topic might be new, it might be foreign. But, we know that we read it somewhere or heard about it someplace.
But the images of the broken hearted and helpless can eat at your soul and crush you, I get that. But, go back to books. Go back to that story about the girl that was trapped in the rubble. The story about the boy who got money for college, or the story about the woman who possibly changed her possible biased views on race dramatically based on a mistaken text. All these are part of ways to change the narrative that tells your own story. Your story is shaped just as much by what you are influenced by as what you already know.
The stories. The books. The reading. All of them elements to a larger picture here: A discovery of yourself.
You’ll never know if you don’t try. Just go to your local library and search for history or culture and wind up somewhere else. Let yourself learn something new and create a growing curiosity.
That was a click-bait title, at least that’s what the analysts call it. I don’t have any analysts and this is getting off topic when the post has barely started so let’s go. This weekend is lists. Not great or epic lists, but lists of things that I want or enjoy. Today: Classic Literature.
Now, being an English major probably afforded me a bit of leeway in thinking about this a bit or at least that’s what people who are not English majors seem to think. The truth is, I never read any of the classics I thought I would. I read some obscure ones that turned out to be interesting, weird, and not ones I can say I would read again (probably because writing a 10 page paper drains the story out for you). But, here’s some novels that I read as an English major that stuck out the most to me. I hope you’ll check some of them out.
I think this must be the most under-rated Austen novel. I would have got to it eventually one day, since my goal is to read all the novels but one class in particular in which I read this book made me think about gothic literature and its effects. I do not remember watching the tv movie or masterpiece special, though maybe I did and it wasn’t as memorable as P & P. Read it though, whatever people told you about Austen forget it and let yourself read a romance out of its time for a bit.
I don’t really know why I’m putting this on the list, I don’t remember the story that well. It’s probably because I saw it in the library recently and I remembered it to be sad and recalled a woman named Oedipa, vaguely. Give it a try.
Wow, go me putting this one on here. This was that novel that takes place in the South that was told through multiple narrative styles (which I just now read included a technique called stream of consciousness..interesting). I didn’t love it when reading it because I analyzed it without getting the meaning from it. I know its importance as an important historical novel about the South. I would recommend it even though I don’t love it. See, I think of others!
I feel like this should be at the top. I think this is one of my all time favorite novels. I read it in a class for youth fiction or something. Most of my class did not enjoy this novel, but instead loved The Bluest Eye. I never got why that was. Of course both totally different novels.
This is a good one, that’s all I remember. That it was good and I liked it. Read in an American contemporary fiction/American novelists class. It follows three months of a former basketball players life. There are sequels which I never read. This is like when I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and was told there were sequels. I didn’t read those either. Whatever, don’t regret it too much.
This is also one of best books I’ve read. So profoundly moving. Does that sound like a movie critic? Sorry, but read it. If you want to know what its about in four words here: Immigrant family, London, tenacious, sinewy.
This is historical fiction set in England. I believe it tells a story of a butler, but of course its more than that. It’s really a great book so I do recommend it.
I would use the word “oppressed” to describe parts of this book and “traditional” and “sacrilegious” to explain other parts. It’s maybe controversial, I don’t know. I can’t remember it clearly enough to say anything to make you want to pick it up and read it more but do look it up.
Oh this book. This book, how I worked and researched this book for so long. It was the subject of a class paper and for a senior thesis I chose to write on this book again (professors worried I would be copying from the first essay, but I promised to do more research as I felt there was much more to explore on the novel). Suffice to say, the paper was never published in any journals. Should I have at least tried to submit? Probably? Would it be too late? I don’t know, but I need newer references and sources that the one’s I used likely. Enough of that struggle. Read it!
By this point, you may be like “wow, this girl read so many awesome books during her time in college!” And to that I would say, “Sure, but I read a lot of boring short stories too and I’ve read so many more awesome books since then!” I really have. Check out the book blog. I post what I read, when I remember to post about it.
The Writer's Trajectory 