Dear Reader/future reader/past readers/whoever wants to read this.
It is just below an understatement how important books have been in my life. It isn’t just about the book itself but the memory I have attached to it. For instance, my very first journal entry was about my mom giving me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I wrote a couple pages on how much I loved that book and how excited I was to find out there were more. When I had the flu in middle school and I was out for an entire week, I read all 13 of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books.
I remember the book(1) I read to impress you, and now it sits on a shelf in our little cubby of a library. I remember the book(2) my sister recommended and now it’s on my bedside table. I remember the book that two people I love recommended and became the reason I wrote this blog post. It’s the book I re-read yearly as a reminder to feel infinite. I think the very first time I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower I read it in one sitting. I re-read it around the time that mom got really sick and my roommate, who had become one of my best friends, was moving. I was going to live alone for the first time. Things where changing so quickly that I wanted to get lost in the pages of a book I had traveled before. I remember when the movie came out and the three of us spent a rainy afternoon in a movie theater watching our favorite book become one of our favorite movies. Afterwards we drove to Tom’s dinner with three coupons that got us 15 dollars’ worth of food…each. I honestly can’t remember when I first read that book, but I remember reading it when it was most needed.
There’s countless others of course. Books I read for nostalgia, books I read to be happier, books I read to forget and books I read to remind myself the joy of getting lost in a good story. I think that a book isn’t just about the story it’s telling you but about when it shows up in your life. I hope you find your re-readable book and it brings you reminders of good memories with good people.
Happy reading.
PJ