“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”

― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Booking Through Thursday: Being a Reader (capitol R)

It's Booking through Thursday!

here is this weeks question/back story:

I was talking to a co-worker the other day about a book I’d read recently, and realized how very, very few people I can do that with. In my daily life, it seems like almost no-one reads anything more than a newspaper or a fashion magazine. I only have one person I can truly chat about books with … and yet, being a Capital-R-Reader, I simply can’t imagine going through life without a book constantly at hand, or shelves of them proudly displayed downstairs. I’m proud of being a person who not only reads, but who reads a lot–not just in volume but in variety. I like having an inquiring mind. I like exploring new ideas. I love following an intricately plotted story (the more layers the better). I love BEING a reader and simply can’t imagine what it’s like to go through life without being one.
Am I the only one who feels this way? That wonders at how other people can simply NOT do something that should be so essential? Who feels almost sad that so many people seem content to go through their lives without stretching their mental wings at all?
Can you imagine NOT being a Reader? How does it shape your life? Your perception of it?
How does being a Reader affect your relationship with all those folks who are looking at it from the other side and simply can’t understand how you can sit and READ all the time?
Yep, it’s a long-winded, philosophical springboard to a ephemeral conversation … go, see what you can make of it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think about this almost every second of my day. How can one not read? How can people look at your face and the book in your hand and say "Who reads anymore?" I just can't comprehend how one person could not find joy in escaping to different worlds!

I think it may have something to do with their exposure to books.

One thing being they don't find their genre. The one that makes them wait in lines at four in the morning just to get the next book. If not that extreme they haven't found the book that captivates them in such a way that the open the book and close it a moment later (having finished it of course)

Another could be the way books are introduced at school. I know that most kids do not find interest in assigned readings. Most of the time they are un-entertaining and give a person a books worst impression, therefore scarring them for life.

Book love can be obtained in good introduction but there is also another factor:

It is a natural love.

I know that I was not introduced into it saying "Oh books are such wonderful thing! Read and become a reader!" I was simply handed a book and I could not put it down until books became part of who I am. My love of books wasn't something that was taught to me, it was simply there. Natural and it could not be stopped. So even when someone asks, their noses high in the air, "Eww. Who reads books?" It will not stop me from being who I am and that is: Being a Reader. (capitol R. ;) )

While that veered off topic slightly, I will wrap up the other questions here:

Can you imagine NOT being a Reader? No! Not at all! It's part of who I am, being a Reader, it's what I love to do and what I spend my time on. If I didn't have reading, what would I do with my time??! What do 'normal' people do? Seriously. I am at a loss.

How does it shape your life? It is indescribable. It helps me a great deal in writing skills as well as fuel my imagination.... There are really just no words for it. One must experience it for themselves.

Your perception of it? Same as above. Everything is magical and special in the worlds you can travel too in books. (no matter how terrible those worlds may be...)

How does being a Reader affect your relationship with all those folks who are looking at it from the other side and simply can’t understand how you can sit and READ all the time? Well it gives me the image of a nerd, which I've embraced whole heartily and, I hope, makes them re-think how reading can be... I haven't died from some 'reading desease' now have I? Reading won't kill you! It will do the very opposite.

~Kait.

2 comments:

  1. I have always been a reader. I always will be. My husband is a reader, my sons are. My parents were. I have two sisters who are and one sister who only reads parenting books, nothing else! Books have shaped who I am in so many ways. I always have a book with me anywhere I go, no matter who I'm with, because you never know when you'll have a moment to read a page or two!

    2 Kids and Tired Books BTT

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  2. I totally understand what you mean. Books have been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, and without them my life would be so much poorer. I agree that many who say they don't like reading just haven't discovered the right books for them. As a former teacher I've seen firsthand the power of a great book to turn reluctant readers into book lovers.

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