When I was little my parents read to me every night, cuddled in their king size bed our nighttime ritual was filled with brave protagonists and tales of the courageous and the love struck. T
hose protagonists went on to fuel my imagination and turned my kitchen table into a wagon headed west ("Little House on the Prairie," Laura Ingalls Wilder) and my backyard into a mountain filled with gold, guarded by a ruthless dragon ("The Hobbit," J.R.R. Tolkien). When I got older and could pick my own stories and read to myself, I found solace and my vocabulary in the misadventures of the orphaned Baudelaire children ("A Series of Unfortunate Events," Lemony Snicket). I found a love of the classics from my father, many nights were spent rereading Scout and Jem’s adventure ("To Kill A Mockingbird," Harper Lee) searching for the lines my dad had underlined in his worn out copy.
Reading has taught me so many things about life and emotion and the human condition. My siblings and I learned about death when Old Yeller died ("Old Yeller," Fred Gipson). I learned about heartache at the hands of John Green and followed tales of mystery at the hands of James Patterson.
I learned about the domino effect people can have on each other ("Nineteen Minutes," Jodi Piccoult). I learned about the ripple effect of abuse and lies ("Prince of Tides," Pat Conroy). Reading has taught me about the perils of life from a safe place, I learned about these emotions at a distance.
A good book has always been a safe refuge when reality was vapid or sad. I was born into a paperback world filled with princesses and happy endings but I have not grown to expect my life to unfold the way my favorite stories have. Not all books hold clean and neat endings, those books taught me that neither does life.
Sometimes life is hard and you feel alone, but that is where the beauty of reading lies, that even when you feel most alone, or feel like you’re feeling something no one else ever has, there’s a book that captures your emotion. Holden Caulfield said it best “I can’t explain what I mean, and even if I could I’m not sure I’d feel like it,” ("The Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger).
The moral is that you can always find a character feeling the same feelings you are even if you cannot put them into words. You just have to read the right books. Read books that make you think, that make you feel, and that teach you something. Read books that make you want to change or believe in something. In a world that can be so cruel and make you feel all alone, read a book and find escape between the pages of a beautifully crafted novel.
