Ah, the highs and lows of reading a great book

I love to read. I'd forgotten how much I love to read until recently. Spring break allowed me a rare opportunity to revert back to my high school ways of completely immersing myself in a novel, using every moment of spare time to milk a little more of the plot from the pages. Mundane tasks that involved sitting in waiting areas became exciting again, and I looked forward to the waits that would come with getting my oil changed, seeing the eye doctor, waiting for my turn in the chair at the hair salon. I've heard it said that, on average, an American spends a few years of his or her life waiting. Alas, just imagine if I could take a year of that all at once to do nothing but read for pleasure! I think I would read a mixture of old and new, engrossing myself in new stories and revisiting the books I love that gave me an appreciation for the power of imagination and the written word. If you don't feel like reading this whole post, skip to the last paragraph, which is the reason I started writing this in the first place.

Like many others in my generation, I fell in love with reading when I opened the first Harry Potter book. Recommended to me by my friend, Jillian, I quickly became involved in the story, drinking in the first three books of the series during my fifth grade year. Eagerly awaiting for the subsequent four novels was a valuable lesson in patience. Although I often forget, I learned that some things are worth waiting for and that the wait makes the treat that much sweeter.

Reading is such an emotional activity for me. The older I get, the more easily others' emotional stories move me. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing, considering I am only 21 and if this trend continues, I will be a mess by the time I'm 30! I am extremely empathetic and find a way to relate to the characters in the books I read, so when something happens to the character in the story, I cry as if it has happened to me. Same thing happens in movies. My film appreciation professor says that the goal of any film is to evoke an emotional response from the audience. I'd say most filmmakers would feel rather accomplished if all their audience members were like me! Anyway, I sometimes read in boring classes, which recently presented an amusing problem looking back on it. A character in the book I was reading (The Shelters of Stone) had suffered fatal wounds as a result of being trampled by a bison while hunting and was waiting for his mate to reach him to say goodbye before he succumbed to the pain and extensive internal bleeding. Of course, I was reading it as if it were my "mate" who was dying a quick but painful death, and I was having trouble fighting back tears in class. I'd read a sentence, take a break to prevent myself from tearing up, read another sentence, take a break to maintain my composure. One might wonder why I put myself through such emotional strife by reading such things. My professor is right. You go to the movies to feel a desired emotional response. That emotional response is not always happiness, joy, love or any other positive emotion. You might be seeking to experience an emotion you don't desire in any other circumstance. Most people don't like feeling scared, frightened and helpless, but there are tons of people who enjoy horror films (although I am not one of them). If an author is truly a great writer, he or she can invoke within the audience an emotional reaction to a situation they have never experienced and may never experience just from the way he or she accurately describes the motives and feelings of the characters involved.

While on the phone with Allison last night, she put into words the way I feel when I read a really good book. I'm paraphrasing, but basically, here is how she described it (with some additional insights of my own): When you're reading a good book, you become so involved in it that you constantly think about it, whether in the forefront or the back of your mind. You think about the characters of the book the way you think about people in your life. You think about how they would react to certain situations, and you miss them when you have been away from them for too long. You sometimes even dream about what is going on in the book, the way you would dream about events taking place in your own life. You become so invested in what you are reading that when you come to the end of the book or the series, it is like a part of your world is gone. What has consumed your thoughts and your free time is over. It's kind of depressing, really. Yes, you can re-read the book or the series again, but there are no new twists or turns of the plot to discover. Whenever I finish a good book or book series, I am sad and feel like I'll never be able to find something of equal value to read. I have a sort of mourning period after I finish. But thanks to the limitless imagination, creativity and individuality of mankind, and the endless pairings of words on a page, I always find a new literary treat to tickle my intellectual taste buds. Here's to the anticipation of the last book of possibly my favorite book series, Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children books. The sixth book of the epic series 31 years in the making will be here on March 29, and it couldn't come sooner!

Some engrossing books to try...