Emese Kassai
Why reading? When I hear someone talking about books, they usually discuss required readings and how boring or senseless these stories are. Even though sometimes I totally agree with them, I think reading is an awesome thing that you can do in your freetime. In this essay I want to write about what I find fantastic in this activity, hoping that I can encourage some of you to start a book and fall in love with reading (and if you don’t, that’s okay too).
Reading to me is like a lover who always comes back, quietly, so I don’t even notice. Sometimes when I read a book, I can’t put it down, and even if I do, I feel like somehow I’m still in the story. Sometimes I can’t even look at the letters. I have had both horrible and wonderful reading experiences, but with every book I have read, I have somehow become more than I was before. I even got to the point where I want to create my own story, but that’s another matter.
If someone asked me about my favorite book, I probably couldn’t answer, because when I read something that really touches me, it’s like a part of my soul stays with the book. Even though some of them claim a bigger part of my soul than others.
One of these books is The Inexplicable Logic of my Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This book has everything in it. Family, friendship, loss, grief and love. Salvador, the protagonist and also the narrator, is a young high schooler. He tells the readers his story with a little bit of sarcasm and humour, but (and this is my favorite thing in the book) he is totally honest. It’s not a fantasy or a romance, neither a thriller nor a crime story. It’s just about feelings, and that’s the power in it. At least for me.
One of my favorite things in reading is that I feel like I’m in another world, which is so much more than this one. When I’m reading, I feel that I am so much more than in reality. I feel like I am that girl who I can only dream to become, I feel like I’m the protagonist. When I read, I feel like I’m at home. The other thing I find good in this activity is that when people see that I am reading, some of them will probably think that I am an intelligent and clever being. I have already screwed them, and we haven’t even talked.
And why would I recommend reading to you? Because it’s fun! When you choose a book, it doesn’t have to be a classic, it doesn’t have to be fantasy or romance. Reading is about you, and it’s about getting to know yourself, travelling to new places, new worlds or even old ones. It makes you more than you were before.