Sunday, December 2, 2007

Everywhere and Anywhere

There is no place in the world that is better than inside the pages of a good book. Opening the cover, you can have breakfast in the Old Wild West, eat your lunch with Merlin in Avalon, have dinner at a Renaissance Ball, and fall asleep on a starship sometime in the future. You can go anywhere you wish, even to places that may not really exist.

I began reading at a young age, so I have no memories of not being able to read. During my life I have gone though some horrible experiences and without the escape into books, I don’t think I would have made it through with my sanity intact. During the worst times I would choose books that had happy endings, this built hope that I would make it though my trouble. Putting myself into the place of the main character, experiencing the challenges they endured, and seeing that no matter how bad things got for them, they always managed to pull through and live happily ever after; bolstered my courage and increased my emotional endurance.

Each book has its own appeal. There may be pictures or artwork on the cover, the title may be writing in a fancy font, the thickness and heft of the book. Just holding the book in my hands, the promise of events and travel, the new characters to meet and get to know and to travel with them on their journey. Every book promises something new and different.

Opening the book brings varied experiences: The crisp, fresh scent of a new book, the stiffness of the unread pages, the crackle of the spine bending for the first time. Or, alternatively, the musty smell of an old, much loved book; the soft, dog-eared pages, turned lovingly, many times while revisiting old friends; the broken spine, automatically falling open to favorite parts of the story. Every book takes you somewhere you may have never been able to go otherwise.

I take these journeys whenever possible. Whether it be curled up in bed with a bowl of chips, sitting on the couch with a cold drink, or relaxing in a steaming hot bubble bath, there is almost no place I can be that forbids sending my mind and soul out into the wonders of a book. I read on trips, in waiting rooms, just about anyplace where I can sit and have five or more minutes to spare.

There are very few things I refuse to read, namely westerns and mysteries. Those two genres seem to be written more for a male specific audience and I find it difficult to immerse myself into a book of predominately battle scenes, or stay focused enough to be analyzing the story to pick out clues as I read.

As I am now functionally disabled and primarily housebound, books have become even more important to me. It can get boring sitting at home, unable to go anywhere, but having the ability to open a book, I can instantly be anywhere I wish. This week I have explored an undiscovered cavern, traveled to other planets, learned about sea turtles, flown on the back of a dragon, been knighted, and walked beside Princess Di, to name a few things.

I couldn’t imagine not having the world, even the universe open to me. Without books this world would be very limited. Pick one up and open the cover, within a minute you could be anywhere and everywhere you wish. What is your choice? Come with me and learn about Mars. We will lose ourselves discovering the Americas, or we can go hang out with the Vikings tonight. Open a book and let your soul and mind fly.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love reading books about western, romantic, and books of the north. Fact is, since I only have brothers, I tend to read books meant for boys instead of girls. My favorite books are from Jack London and Janette Oke.
London's books show how fierce living can be and to keep going and moving on from what you are experiencing today. Oke's books, on the other hand, seem to put women in a bad situation, but when they fall in love, their lives seem perfect to the binding of the books. I love your comment(s) Ru. I appreciate that you support books and read them any chance you get.

Anonymous said...

My lil boy 6 years old and his library has near 40 or more books, we've given away some cause as he's growing, he doen's like baby's books with just pictures, next year he'll start the elemental school, so the content of his library will change a lil, but he has a lot of stories, since he born, almost all days, when he goes to bed, there's a story telles besides him, I love books (almost a librarian) I started at 10 with Julius Verne, and i have lot of good memories from books. If you can get a good spanish to english translation I'll recomend to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez especially "Love in the time of cholera".
hugs
Bruxir

Anonymous said...

i have hard to start reading something causeim usually too stress of life and need calm to get in but if im able to start i can read and enjoy it(mostly brimstone of raist and such)

not really buying any books for long im too addict to T4C lol... or others games when i got free time