Blind dates with Books

Something I come across rather often is that people know a lot about a book before ever reading it. When you know a lot about the book before ever opening it, you're at a disadvantage for immersing yourself. You might know the plot twist, or the outcome of the characters which doesn't allow you to fully experience the story sometimes. Or it might not live up to your expectation. Wanting to know about the book is understandable; I mean look how terrible blind dates can be when a well meaning friend sets you up. Who would want to do that with something so important as reading a book?

Sure many people don't believe that reading a book is important, but I believe differently. When you read a book you're investing your time, your emotions, and your mental stability. People walk past people reading everyday and don't notice that the reader's heart may be breaking, a plot twist may be throwing them for a loop, something a character realizes might be causing them to have their own self realization. There are many quotes about books and the importance of them to the world, and so many of them ring true.

I like to have blind dates with books, and it's a huge risk. I don't use the library, not because I don't support them-I think libraries are wonderful assets; I don't use the library because I'm selfish and I don't like giving books back even if it's not something I love. I enjoy spending time perusing the local used book store, taking the time to glance at all the books, seeing which ones are interesting, which ones immediately put me off, which ones were well loved and which ones were never read. Often I will choose a book I have never heard of before, an unknown author, unknown world, unknown plot. I'm making a commitment to that book that I will read it as it deserves, I will finish, and I will think about it.

This isn't to say that I love every book I've read, because I haven't met anyone that loves every book. There are some books that I don't care to read the next series, for whatever reason may be. I've given up on only one book, one that I know many people have for an understandable reason: The Heart of Darkness. If you know that notorious novel, you'll understand why at the age of 17 I didn't have the patience to push through.

Just as you have negative experiences with blind dates sometimes there is that wonderful, glorious, heart warming, amazing feeling when you and the book click. The author's words lift off the pages, transporting you out of this world and into one of their creation. You cry when the protagonist cries, you laugh when they laugh, you cheer them on, and you despair for them in their darkest moments. But you carry on, just as Samwise Gamgee said, because you know that it shall pass.

So I encourage you to take a blind date with a book, and see what path it takes you on. It might not work out sure, but it also might become your favorite book. The one that you don't ever forget.

Here's to never forgetting your favorite story.

B.