Why Are Books Important To Me?

Having recently moved into a new apartment and being able to have all my books with me in my room and on a shelf again has brought up some unseen emotions about books and reading I forgot I had. I began to remember why I loved reading and how I got into it in the first place. Now hold on, this is a long post with many stories.

From a young age I always loved reading, I loved stories.  My yiayia used to recite 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' to my sister and me everything time she would put us to bed. It is one of my favorite memories of her, telling us the story with emotion while my sister and I watched.  She also used to tell us the story of how her family came to America from Greece right before she was born.  She would tell us stories of her parents, her siblings, and being the youngest and having to translate a lot for her parents. In some ways, I think my love of reading came from her telling us those stories.

From first grade, I always read any book that I could.  The Librarian became a friend. All the reading tests they held put me at least one grade above reading level (ex. while in third grade I was at a fourth to fifth grade reading level). I didn't care too much about it, I just liked reading. My yiayia died while I was in the fourth grade and I stopped reading for a bit, it wasn't something I thought of, it just happened.  Looking back now I can't remember reading much from the middle of fourth grade until a whole year later when I was in fifth grade.

One of my favorite quotes from this movie.

I was walking through the library shelves trying to find a book.  I wanted to read again, just didn't know what.  I had no booklr or book twitter to help little fifth grade me. I found the book companion to the movie Aquamarine. I loved that movie (wait a minute, I still love that movie...it's about MERMAIDS!). My sister and I watched it so many times that I could probably recite a whole scene, or close enough if you asked me to tomorrow. I picked up this little novelization and walked into my classroom with my fellow peers.  We did our studies and lessons for that day and our teacher, tired and not having a lot left for us to do that day, let us have a reading day.  I sat on the carpeted area and opened that book.  I don't remember many of the words, all I remember is that I read that book cover to cover that day.

From then on I read what I could get my hands on.  I reread a few books.  Many of the books I read in the elementary school years of my life went by in a blur, as I can't really remember a lot of those memories anyway. My full-blown book obsession bloomed in middle school; seventh grade to be exact.

In my reading class, my teacher gave us reading journals.  We were to read every quarter and document a small summary of the book every five pages so that he knew we were actually reading the book and not faking.  The first two quarters I read books that I knew I liked, books I had read before already. I was looking for a new story to read for the next journal. My mother had been trying to get me to read Witch and Wizard by James Patterson all that year, and I decided that I would finally try the story out. W&W is a story about a brother-sister duo who suddenly discover they are a witch and a wizard after their government takes them from their home in the early morning. They must learn how to use their powers and fight off their villain, The One Who Is The One, to save the world.

Like a lot of James Patterson's books, the chapters were very short.  I think out of all the Patterson books I've read, the longest chapter was maybe 7 pages. I was reading five chapters a night just to make it last longer, but I was sucked into the story. I finished that book and instantly needed the next one, but it wasn't out yet. From then I started to learn about more books, expanded what I wanted to read. The next book, The Gift, came out for W&W, and my whole life with books changed.

I now live off booklr, book twitter, and Goodreads (here's my profile) to find the next thing to read. When high school started I began to collect more books and keep them in my room.  I was able to take a large bookshelf we had that no one was using. I was able to discover through a friend my now favorite author, Julie Kagawa.

Ever since then I have expanded not just my bookshelf but my preferences on what I like to read.

One of my favorite moments that came from reading was when I was a senior in high school.  I had just recently read about three of the Mortal Instruments series and was working at a party store during the Halloween season. One day I was standing by the costumes and putting some items away. A young girl came up to me, her parents behind her. I turned and smiled at her. Our conversation went like this.

'Do you know how to make a costume of a Shadowhunter from the Mortal Instruments books?'
Her mother touched her child's shoulder 'Honey she doesn't know what that is.'
I gave myself a nice smile and looked down to the child. 'I LOVE those books. And since Shadowhunters wear all black I would just wear a black tee and maybe black leggings or jeans. As for a seraph blade, I wouldn't know how to make one. But there might be a video on YouTube or Pinterest.'

Even though I gave her no solutions to her question, she lit up from the fact that I knew what she was reading. I wanted to say 'YES! Other people read you're not a freak for reading. It's good and it's pure. There are people around you that like the same things as you!' But since I was working I didn't. I just continued to smile. The mother smiled at me as well as they went off to look for their costumes and talked about how to make their child's.

I've been called a nerd and a dork for reading. And while it might be true, the way the people used to say it to me was not. To say the words 'dork' and 'nerd' in hurtful/teasing tones to describe someone who is reading doesn't make for a happy person. I stopped reading at school for a few weeks, until I talked to my friends asking them to stop saying that, as it hurt my feelings. I also explained why I liked reading and they seemed to understand.

Reading helps me escape from the world, it helps me calm down from anxiety and panic attacks, and it brings me away from depressed episodes in my life. And with the way our world is turning right now (or at least in my country) it's good to find something to hide in for a little bit when it just gets too much to handle. I love meeting new people how love books and getting their favorite suggestions from them.  My To-Be-Read list is most likely over 1,000 books at this point; I'm too scared to count them all. It just gets bigger every day. There are so many more new books coming out. I'm finding more books with characters like me, characters that are not the normal of the past books, and just telling different stories.

This is why reading is important to me, why books are important to me. Why they are such a big part of my life. Books are a large part of who I am today, a reason why I want to write some of them in the years to come. I also really like the smell of them, nothing beats the smell of a new book.

Let me know why you love reading and books or leave your favorite book (stand-alone or series) in the comments!

À beintôt!

Photo/Gif creds: Belle, bibliophile, Matilda, Aquamarine, smell