Why do I Fancy Books?

There is something so… special about being able to appreciate a book. Not everyone can do it, and quite a few don’t even bother to read anything but the books they are told to read by educational systems (and sometimes they don’t even do that). But once you know how to appreciate books for all that they’re worth, you are opened to an entire world of possibilities… no, more than a world, a billion worlds. Every single author, every single book, every single reader has their very own world and that, is what makes books so very uniquely special.

It has to be said that I have always been an avid reader. From the first time that I was read a fiction book, I became hooked and as soon as I could read myself I was barely ever seen without a book in my hand. Books became my life, my journey, my guidance through the world. Even, to this very day, there are steps I take in my life that I know I take because I have read something similiar or have been given advice from a book to make sure I don’t go down a certain path. Books to me are more than just paper and ink, they’re more than just an author’s imagination splashed onto a page. They are my friends. Ultimately, they are the one thing that will never let me down. They will never hurt me in the way that other people do and I always feel like a piece of my soul becomes dislodged when I finish an incredible book because I feel like I have just said goodbye to the best friend I own.

Books can transport you to destinations that you could never dream of before. But they also do so much more than that. If the author is good enough (and there are some brilliant author’s out there and I’m not just talking about J.K. Rowling here) they can make you get attached to the characters as though they are actually there with you. They take you on their journey and you feel so touched by them that when things start happening, you know they’re not happening to you but it feels like they’re happening to someone that is extremely close to you and it simply affects you on an emotional level.

Of course, there are always those books that we pick up, read and don’t really get anything from because they can’t all be brilliant but on the times when you pick up a book and truly feel taken to a new world with so many endless possibilities, those are the ones that make you feel so much more alive. Sometimes all it takes is one book, just one to make you remember that reading isn’t a chore, it is a pasttime; a hobby. ‘The Hunger Games‘ by Suzanne Collins which I only just finished on Friday night (and I literally read over half of it in one sitting) was one of those books and it just made me realise just how much I have missed reading over the last few years. University has just gotten in the way and taken over my reading time but now I know that I need to get back into reading again. Once more, I have returned to my friends, my love, my books.