A lot of people believe we are the accumulation of all our experiences. You are the outcome of the people you meet, the places you visit, and the situations you experience. I guess I do believe this to be true. I am defined by the vampires I’ve killed, the murder mysteries I’ve resolved, and the lovers I’ve grown old with. I, like everyone else, am defined by all the experiences I’ve gone through by becoming a part of all the books I’ve read.
When you immerse yourself in the infinite world of wondrous pages, you become the characters. Unlike a movie, you see everything from their perspective. With every book you read, you gain another life, another story. The lessons you’ve learned and the people you’ve met infinitely influence your person as a whole. So what does reading certain books do to you? And of course, most of us tend to lean towards the same style of book over and over again. So, what does your favorite genre say about you?
If you like romances and dramas, the shelf in your room is probably filled with copies of Nicholas Spark's novels that have faded script from the rainstorms of tears you have shed on each page. You have lived through both happy and depressive endings. You have become a hopeless romantic, making up stories with every other guy that gets on the bus about how you'll meet, fall in love, and whether you'll end up together or separated by an unfortunate circumstance. Over thinking every detail about your love life consumes you. Nevertheless, you think the best of people and believe in true love, because even in the saddest of books, love is the only thing that could even attempt to hold everything from breaking apart.
If you've contemplated making a trip to Paris simply to stop by the Louvre museum to personally challenge Dan Brown's claim of there being 666 glasses in the famous pyramid, you're definitely a mystery junkie. You have become a detective, staying up late every night because you can't put the book down on a cliffhanger. You look at all the little mysteries in life with an open mind, trying to solve them. Whether your crush was on a date with the girl he walked into the dinning hall with or why your casual class friend showed up to discussion 20 minutes late panting, you create 10 explanations and try to figure out which one is true. You probably complicate everything, trying to find a 'solution' for even the simplest coincidences.
Going back through decades and even centuries is some people's way of escaping this time era and exploring the past. You could end up fighting the Japanese in Pearl Harbor, or at a Beatles concert. I think a passion for this type of books could be the result of many things, including being a patriot and an adventurer. Wanting to travel through all the wars that your country has been in, experience all the losses and the victories, and understanding what your country stands for, means that you care. You believe in the strength of your country and are not only interested in how it got to where it is now, but you also stand for what it is and what it will become. If you are an adventurer, your probably read history books to take you to another place, to explore another life. You are aware that the books that you read define you, and you find joy in the new experiences. You most likely look at life the same way and are always down for whatever plans your friends propose.
Despite the boredom I experience when I open these, there is a rare breed of humans that actually enjoys reading textbooks. Frankly, I envy you if you fall under this category. This shows a thirst for knowledge. You are a curious person and probably go through life trying to understand everything that you encounter. You Google every word that you are not sure the meaning of and stay up at night researching facts on subjects that other people find irrelevant.
Lastly, if you're anything like me, Harry Potter was one of your first crushes and you have lost count of the times that you have dressed up as Hermione for Halloween. Fiction, especially fantasy and scientific fiction, intrigues me. So, if you're like me, you think the real world is boring. You see the reality in these books and the imaginary in the real world. Behind a stick you see a wand or a light saber; behind a computer you see a robot. All in all, you crave more. You are a true innovator.
Don't forget there is so much more left to learn, experience, and read. I encourage you to pick up a book you never would have thought you would like. Ditch the history book for the romance novel. After all, the only thing you could possibly lose is a couple of hours, but you could gain a whole new life.
