To be completely honest with you, I struggled a little bit writing this article. I know what it is to love books, but I can never think of how to put it into words exactly. It's kind of like describing the taste of water; you can describe what Sprite tastes like, or even what your favorite Starbucks choice tastes like (or in my case, Dunkin Doughnuts), but you can never really describe the taste of water.
It is such a different world to be in when you have that love for books. You walk through life completely changed and inspired by the books you read. Each one has a different impact on your life. Elizabeth Chandler taught me the power of love through hard times. John Green showed me how twisted an author can be. Stephen King taught me to never read his work at one o'clock in the morning. God taught me beauty through His word.
I could sit here and tell you all the stereotypes of being a bookworm, how we are all geeks and nerds that cannot keep our noses out of a book, but we all know that. It may actually be true, though. We do stay up until four in the morning finishing a book, I would know because I have pulled all nighters finishing my favorite bookshelf choices. We do buy more books even though we have dozens we have not read still in our bookshelves. We do cry to our moms as we just sat through the death of our favorite characters, as I did with the lovely Augustus Waters. Thank you John Green. We do connect on a personal level with each book, because each book speaks to us in a way that make us think that that book was written just for us.
I could go on and on about the stereotypes, but, like I said, we all know them. What some do not know is the impact it actually has in our lives. Not everyone sees the world how we do. We see the world like we see a book, full of potential. Full of adventure. Full of trouble. Full of love. A gateway to chapters unread with a twist around every corner. We walk through life with eyes wide open and ready for anything life decides to write into the next chapter. We walk through each page with our shoulders thrown back, chin up high, and ready to encounter that one moment where we can say to ourselves, “what should happen next in my book?”I will end with the words of Annie Dillard, a classic American author, as she tells us all,
"She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and to LIVE."
We do not read just because it is fun. We do not read because it makes us smarter. We do not read for the summer reading lists or the assigned readings us college students have to read in a week. We read because reading makes up who we are. We read because it gives us life.
