a love letter
for the book club challenge
* I know I didn't choose a specific book, and I'm not sorry, lol.
~
Books saved my life. Plural. You didn't read that wrong, I don't mean I read one specific piece and had some sort of instant connection or epiphany. No the moment I was able to understand words strung together in sentences, I read ferociously. I read unapologetically. Anything I could get my hands on. I still do. And they've all meant something to me–escape.
I grew up an only child that moved a fair amount. I was too smart for my own good, and I knew my own mind from an early age. It made me different. I did what I wanted, peer pressure be damned. Not that I was completely immune to it. I fell prey to wanting the trendy shoes or the hair cut every girl had, but I often didn't get them anyway.
My family was dysfunctional and toxic. The most constant people in my life were my grandparents. And it was a time when electronics were not huge parts of life. We had basic TV channels, and I was able to watch shows here and there but that was it.
Reading was my ticket to another life. One where I wasn't lonely or scared all the time. No one could come with me. It was just me and the characters for as long as I could stay gone. They were my home, my champions, my friends.
I read so much, I was forced to reread or stay in reality. In fact, I have reread a ton in my adult life too. I love to revisit worlds that have welcomed me with open arms. There are a handful of series I've completed over ten times.
In the course of my forty-nine years, I've read thousands of books, and all of them have offered me a place free from judgement or pressure or stress. I can just be me, swept away on adventures that carry me through to the next time we meet. There is not a day that goes by that I fail to read something.
So this is a love letter to all the authors out there that keep going, keep writing, and continue to offer me sanctuary in the wonderful worlds they've decided to share. I hope to do that someday for someone else. Thank you.
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Comments (51)
Very relatable 🥰
I thought I'd come back to say congratulations on a very well deserved top story. 👏
I'm Here Again, Sharing My Relations to The Sentiments Inside This Awesome 🌟 Article, Yes, My Grandmother was My Favorite ♥️💯😉✌️📝
I am so glad you posted this! Beautifully written and so, so relatably on every level. Books really do offer so much escape and beauty in this often challenging world of ours 🤍
Congrats on the TS, my friend. This was a great response to the challenge, imo. I'd say a lot of people can relate in that it's not one particular book that changed, inspired etc. It's the the ability to escape in the words. Excellent, as always.
https://vocal.media/poets/whispers-of-the-elements
Whatever helps you get through to the real you matters... Thank you for this (TS indeed)!
This is so intuitive! I love your take on this! 😍
Very interesting
This is beautiful Heather!! I feel similarly! There’s not really one book that has changed me as such, it’s the holistic experience - love that. I got stuck so didn’t enter. Kudos. ..Series over ten times wow! I occasionally reread but not a lot these days. A terrific piece and I missed it earlier -AND it’s a top story - huge congrats!! ☺️👏 📚
Wow, this is a great account on the power of literature. I'm so glad you were able to escape your toxic childhood and find a safe place in books.
I really relate to entering other worlds as an escape. Congratulations on the Top Story!
Congrats on top story!!!
I always said my mom was a born teacher. By the time I was four years old, I could read and write. So could my older brother. Yes, as we grew and didn't need mom around so much, she did become a teacher and stayed at that job until her 80th birthday. Because of her teaching me at such an early age, I read, and read, and read. I read Dear and Glorious Physican when I was only ten years old I read Moby Dick in one day. I'm now 76 and baffle my husband because I have one hard covered book, one paper back and my kindle... all with different stories that I usually read during one day. I also take time to write. Guess our brains are just wired that way. Thank you for sharing that fact that I'm not alone in the world of the written word.
I too, found solace in books and reading when I was young. My mom didn't like us watching TV, so I had to find other ways to entertain myself. Either I'd spend my entire day outside, or I'd be in a library with my nose in a book.
Felt this in soul! Congratulations on the TS 💙
So relatable! I spent every spare hour (and some not so spare) reading and reading and reading...
Amazing and Congratulations on your Top Story🎉💖✨👍📚
nice
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Oh I hear you here. Even my real life is imbued with a subconscious effort to make it look more like the best imagined ones - this is not always the best thing!
I love that you wrote this. It is so personal and yet is so personal to me and many others too. I read books to understand the world that I live in. Always have, always will. Not sure an oddball like me would have coped without them. ❤
I feel the same. Reading is an escape, and I read every day. I can't fall asleep unless I read before bed, because stories help me to escape from the stress of the day and calm my anxious mind.
Sorry, not sorry. LOL. I never knew how much of a voracious reader you were until the one interview when you mentioned you read like 300 books a year. Mind blown. Even though you didn't pick just one story or book, at least you got your entry done. I haven't published mine yet because everytime I go through my mind and book stacks (yes, plural) I'm like, "Yeah, this is the one I'll write about" and then...nothing. I'll get there though :) Congratulations on Top Story.
Congratulations!