For the Love of Reading

When was the last time you held a new story in your hands? Either a good ole paperback or the newest eBook you’ve added to your digital collection, they both count. Every time I find a new book in my hands, I treat the book almost in a regal manner. I observe the big title in print and miniscule details of the cover art. I run my fingers across the front cover, trying to find what modern texture the publisher provided for our discovery. The book feels comfortable in my hands, my mind whirring, becoming even keener on the journey this story would soon sweep me into.

Lifting the cover, I try to take in every detail: the spine creaking, two title pages, with copyright and publishing information sandwiched between. The book dedication written in italics, as it is in so many other stories. Some books even provide the reader with excerpts from poems or quotes that have something to do with the adventure lying within the pages beyond. Authors then greet us with some sort of note, or a prologue. But sometimes we are sucked right into the story, starting on chapter one.

I always turn the first few pages slowly, treading carefully. Without being entirely aware of it, the words suck me right into the story. Before I know it, my eyes are gobbling up the print, and the pages begin to go by faster and faster. The story becomes home, and comes with me everywhere; to the coffee shop, the dance studio after school, onto an airplane. I read sitting upright, curled in a ball, or upside down, hanging off of my bed, totally comfortable and caught up in the story.

Over the past year, I’d nearly forgotten what it is like to start a new book and really fall into it. While living in Spain, most of the reading I did was of books I had read previously in English. Coming back to the States, I had to retrain myself a bit in the reading department. At the time I had begun The Fellowship of the Ring and taking classes at a university. In the span of eight months, I read college textbooks and managed to read three books on my own time. In comparison to the amount of reading I used to do, this was slightly disappointing.

I have created a goal for myself, and that is to read at least one book every month. To make this undertaking even more fun, I’ll be reviewing each book I read in the form of a vlog. Ah, yes to taking on more projects!

I already have a lengthy list of books I intend on reading, but what others would you suggest? For August, I decided to read Paper Towns, a novel by John Green (and it is fabulous, if I may say so myself).