Since I’ll most likely be writing about books a lot on this blog, I should probably give some context on my passion for reading.
I’ve loved to read since I was a little girl, in-fact, in one of my first baby pictures, I’m “reading” a book. Obviously I haven’t been reading since I was that small, but sometimes it feels that way. For as long as I can remember I’ve read like I needed to do it to survive. In kindergarten throughout all of elementary school, library days were my favorite. I loved that there was an entire room dedicated to housing stories. Picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, it didn’t matter, I loved it. If I had to credit the moment I felt the root of my love for reading take place though, it would have to be when I was reading the Percy Jackson books in 3rd grade. My older brother had been reading them and walked into the living room, handed me the book, and told me I should read it. I sat down as I read those iconic first words, “Look, I didn’t want to be a Half-Blood”, I immediately fell in love. I remember reading and for the first time, it felt as if I were watching a movie in my head. Since then, as I’ve grown up, I’ve fallen more and more in love with reading and have come to understand that it’s more than just because I enjoy the story. I love reading because it allows me to go places that I can only dream of, meet characters that I feel I know as if they were my best friends, and go on adventures right from the comfort of my room. The thing about reading is that, while it may be all in our head, the emotions that the stories make us feel our very much real. We love with our characters as well as mourn with them and that is something that I think is truly special about reading, the ability to experience complex emotions and learn real lessons from words on a page.
Reading has always brought this extreme sense of comfort to me, like as long as I was reading and in that world, nothing could touch me. It has been my safe place to go when I felt overwhelmed and when I felt alone, I always had my books to retreat into. I’ll forever be thankful to my older brother for lending me the Percy Jackson books, because I can’t imagine how bored I’d be today without them.
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