And yes, love affair. I don’t divulge my love of reading, nor comment on the books that I read, to anyone. It has always been, and forever will be, my dirty little secret.
Absorbing those tiny words that are inked on the yellow-ish pages makes me whole, ever since I can remember. When my friend groups would fluctuate and change, the one thing that was always there, were my books. There was even a time in elementary school where I didn’t have any friends, so I would just sit on the steps during break to read, read, and read. Thus, while accepting the comfort and love from the characters in my kiddy books.
I’m not saying that my relationship with literature has always been perfect, because I am here to tell you, that it hasn’t been. Almost every reader goes through periods where we don’t want to read, where we don’t feel connected to the characters, the plot doesn’t entice us, and I have tragically gone through several of those. Having a reading slump became my worst nightmare, because I wasn’t able to pick up a book and read. To put it simply, I couldn’t read. My eyes would skim the pages over and over again, but I would feel nothing, making them the most appalling moments of my life since this huge part of me, of my heart, was missing. When the slump passed, everything felt lovely; my life just became collectively better.
I am living the thousand lives that I am destined to experience because of literature. If it weren’t for books, I would just live one, not so exciting and riveting, life. They take me to this whole new world, one in which I feel the happiest. Even when I have closed my book and am back in reality, I still feel like I am in that someplace else.
From finding Daphne Bridgerton’s perfect match in The Duke and I, to reading about Aria Scuderi’s and Luca Vitiello’s arranged marriage in Bound by Honor, to experiencing Daisy Jones joining The Six in Daisy Jones and The Six, I have read through it all. What I mean by this is that I have become too invested in the story lines and characters of my books, to the point that they hold by my heart in a chokehold.
I am mentally, physically and spiritually connected to reading. My heart yearns for all the elaborate relationships between fictional characters. My mind desires fictional texts at all times of the day. My body craves the tingling sensation of flipping the pages after I read through the beautifully printed sentences.
Reading, is my forever and ever everything.
