Today, I want to talk about books.
I am a reader, and one aspect of finding joy in books (at least for me!) is rereading the ones that I love.
Some of my "non-reader" friends simply do not understand why I would want to read the same thing more than once, and I don't understand why they wouldn't.
I've spent a fair amount of time trying to understand where they're coming from. How do I find something so inherently beautiful about reading that they do not see? What am I doing that they are not?
Because it seems to me that there must be something to this beyond personal preference. There are so many genres of books, so many writers, so many writing styles that one would think there would be something out there for everyone.
It's possible that my "non-reader" friends just haven't found their niche, yet, and for some, I think that's probably true.
But there's something else I've noticed... There seem to be a few fundamental differences in the way I and my "non-reader" friends approach reading.
From talking extensively with these "non-reader" friends, it seems to be that many of them approach reading as the means to an end. They read to see the end of a story. They read to pass their English class. They read to make someone else happy.
And while I'm not sure I would say there is anything inherently wrong with this, I do think that much of the joy I find in reading is lost when you read only as a means to an end.
If you read with your eyes too focused on where you hope to be, you miss out on how you got there.
Because while the beginning and the end of a story are always what we remember best, it's the middle that makes both of them worth it.
It's like a road trip... The people who hate road trips are the people who only see how long it takes to get to your destination. The people who love road trips are the people who want to see the in-between.
It seems to me that many of the people who don't like reading never had someone to show them how beautiful the in-between can be...
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What do you think is the reason some people love reading and others do not? Let us know in the comment section below, over at my Facebook page, or email it to me at anastasiarosewrites[@]gmail[.]com!
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101 Things- Counting Down
I'm still hard at work on my cranes... I've also started on the letter to my hero (#82), and hope to check that off pretty quickly.
