I Write What I Read

A throwback of my first post on my first book blog from two years ago.

7.17.12

So I have been reading  a lot of popular modern books lately. Specifically teen fiction.

I started reading the Harry Potter books since high school. Read the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in 2002, ten years now. Wow, that seems so long ago! And I finished the seventh book in I think 2008 or 2009? Ofcourse, like any other mudblood, I adored the story. It's very dear to me. It was part of my teenage, angst-ridden life. I'm gonna keep it as simple as that.

Besides the Harry Potter series I read tons of titles. Not really tons, I think it would be measly compared to other bookworms. You see, I'm a slow reader. I thought in time I would improve. I still read very slowly now. *shrugs* I have read Sidney Sheldon- not all of his titles but some of his best sellers. If you ask me to summarize one story from the books I read, I couldn't for I can't remember anymore. Maybe because mostly of them had cruel plots. Yes, I'm all about rainbows and butterflies. Really, everything is so vague. One day, I'll try to read 'em again. Maybe I'll remember. 'cause I don't think you ever forget a good story. Maybe it just resting there deep in my subconscious. Danielle Steel as well. Boy, her books are good tear jerkers. I read "Star" and vowed to read anything from her ever again. I just can't handle deep drama. I get so distress, I would carry that for weeks!

My favorite publishing house is the Harlequin- I prefer the Historical and my favorite the Tyler series. Every weekend I would stay in surplus bookstores scouting for Tyler books. I'm proud to say that all that lurking and standing in those little bookstores paid-off. I have ten out of the twelve books. I'm missing Milky Way and Bachelor's Puzzle. Hoping I can still find 'em! (I don't know how to buy on the internet!) And from my favorite author, Olivia Goldsmith! I LOVE ALL her books! Especially First Wive's Club. It's so delicious! The humor that she puts on her book, I just agree to all of them. I go gaga over her.

For some years leisure reading has been halted. Except for when I have to for school, because I'm an English major student and we all have literature of all types which I love so much and I miss heart-achingly! Glad to say that before 2010 ended my leisure reading has been right on track. Currently I have read all books from the Artemis Fowl series and Percy Jackson series including Heroes of Olympus. Waiting for upcoming books of these series! *excited* And what really, really got me right back on track was The Hunger Games series. It's just so damn human. You feel it. It sinks deep beneath the recesses of your body and makes you tingle all over. It's that kind of effect.

Currently I'm reading a series from a different genre. This is kind of hot right now... Ofcourse, it's Fifty Shades of Grey series. I'm now on the second book, Fifty Shades Darker. I just love how it reminds me of the local pocketbooks that me and my friends used tor read. Well, I'm not the only one who agrees to this, my friends do too because I recommended it to them and they even finished the series before I did! Slow reader *sigh.

Looking forward to read the series by R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones etc.

Why do I read books? I read because I love reading. Why do I love reading? I really can't quite say or write it in words. Let me start by saying that reading a book makes me happy. This kind of happiness is a different kind of happiness compared to acquiring worldly possessions, it's more deep and very satisfying. It embeds to the core... It touches the soul.

More than an escapism, reading cultivates dreams and ambitions. It's an alone time or it could be a group thing, but for sure it bridges communication. Reading for me is essential- like breathing. I would not know what to do with my life if I were not a reader.


Alain de Botton and his team at The School of Life  has come up with the four psychological functions of great literature.

1. IT SAVES YOU TIME
It looks like it’s wasting time, but literature is actually the ultimate time-saver — because it gives us access to a range of emotions and events that it would take you years, decades, millennia to try to experience directly. Literature is the greatest reality simulator — a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness.

2. IT MAKES YOU NICER
Literature performs the basic magic of what things look like though someone else’s point of view; it allows us to consider the consequences of our actions on others in a way we otherwise wouldn’t; and it shows us examples of kindly, generous, sympathetic people.
Literature deeply stands opposed to the dominant value system — the one that rewards money and power. Writers are on the other side — they make us sympathetic to ideas and feelings that are of deep importance but can’t afford airtime in a commercialized, status-conscious, and cynical world.

3. IT’S A CURE FOR LONELINESS
We’re weirder than we like to admit. We often can’t say what’s really on our minds. But in books we find descriptions of who we genuinely are and what events, described with an honesty quite different from what ordinary conversation allows for. In the best books, it’s as if the writer knows us better than we know ourselves — they find the words to describe the fragile, weird, special experiences of our inner lives… Writers open our hearts and minds, and give us maps to our own selves, so that we can travel in them more reliably and with less of a feeling of paranoia or persecution…

4. IT PREPARES YOU FOR FAILURE
All of our lives, one of our greatest fears is of failure, of messing up, of becoming, as the tabloids put it, “a loser.” Every day, the media takes us into stories of failure. Interestingly, a lot of literature is also about failure — in one way or another, a great many novels, plays, poems are about people who messed up… Great books don’t judge as harshly or as one-dimensionally as the media…

Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others — because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

From Brain Pickings.