I realized that I had an addiction to books around the age of nine. That was the first time that one of my teachers scolded me in front of the class for reading a book under my desk, rather than paying attention to the math lesson. I remember that it was one of the American Girl books. Molly to be exact. she never was my favorite, so if one of my books was going to be taken by Mrs. Robiack, it was probably a good one to lose.
It was about a two or three years after I had my first book taken from me in school that I read a book called A Little Princess. In it, a father describes the reading habits of his daughter in such a way that I was forced to realize that that it was me. He said that Sara gobbled her books like a little wolf. That has always been me. But the problem is that I wish I didn’t. I always hate finishing a new book that I loved. After all, I’ll never read it for the first time again. Any new readings will not hold the same magic as the first. I might learn to know the characters better and find new aspects of the theme I missed the first time, but it’s never that first reading of “What will happen next?!”
I think this is a left over quality of reading stories mainly for plot. When I was younger I read pretty much anything I could get my hand on as long as I found the story enjoyable. Plot is what drives the young reader. That’s why Babysitters’ Club, with their cookie cutter stories and characters work. Each book is about what happens, not how the characters deal with it.
A Little Princess is a perfect example of this. I loved this book when I was younger, but I have to admit that today I think I would find Sara Crew to be a bit insufferable. She of course was brilliant, and fantastically rich, and more motherly than most adults at the age of 11. When she is struck with tragedy, after a few weeks/months of sadness, she becomes determined to be noble, and pretends that she’s a princess throughout this suffering, and of course wins the day. I’m not opposed to the winning of the day, but she was so perfect that I wonder what girl could look at this character and say, yes that’s me. I like characters who screw up sometimes, and even frustrate the reader a bit. After all, who doesn’t frustrate people sometimes? So I find today that I like books about characters a lot more. The plot is still important, of course. It’s when I can find books with both aspects that they become colorful.
When authors manage to paint characters and stories for me, that’s when books become silvery and deep scarlet and warm gold to me. I know that won’t make sense to most, but the books with the most beautiful colors are the ones I love the most.
September 19, 2008 at 2:53 am
You have painted your interest in reading very well in this post. It’s the same for me. I just can’t reread things unless I’ve really forgotten it, which has happened before.