Feb 27, 2011

It's Like Meeting an Old Friend

A few weeks ago I got an Amazon gift card. Of course, I bought a ton of books, some of them new favorites and some favorites from when I was a teen. And it got me thinking about how books are like friends, and just like friends there are different degrees:

That person you see all the time who seems really awesome, and has lots of friends, but you never get up the nerve to talk to. This is that book that everyone loves, and it's been on your list to read forever, but you basically know that you are never going to read. Some of my examples of this are: Les Miserables, Wuthering Heights, The Poisonwood Bible

That person you met once at a party, a work meeting, or through a mutual friend and had a great time talking to, but you'll probably never see them again. You know that book that is fun/amazing/good when you read it, but it's not something you are going to go out and buy? It gave you some good times, kept you from boredom, but you don't really seek out reading it again. My examples: The Hunger Games, Atonement, Great Expectations

That person who you really liked when you met them, but then you spent some time away from them and realized how they really are and now you avoid them at all costs. This is that book that you read because it was cool and exciting and fresh. You'd never known something like this. You wanted to spend all your time with it, and when you weren't reading it, you were thinking about reading it. You procrastinated doing all the things you were supposed to do because you just had to read one more page. Then you finished it, went away from it for a little while and when you came back you noticed all the flaws and manipulating within it. My example: Twilight

That person you were really good friends with in school that you thought you were so lucky to be their friend, but you randomly saw them at the grocery store and you said hi and maybe caught up a little but it isn't the way it used to be. This is that book that you just remember loving when you were younger (like a teenager). You read it over and over again and the spine is all broken. But it has been years since you read it and you see it in a bookstore or library, so you get it and read it. And it's good, just not as good as you remember it being. My examples: Spindle's End, Summers at Castle Auburn

That person who you were friends with at school and every once and a while you'll see them some place and it's just like it used to be, laughing at the same jokes and talking without any problem. These are the books that you know no matter what that you love. You read them maybe every couple of years, and it makes you feel the same way you did when you read them for the first time. Not only that, but now that you've grown some, you get even more out of it than you did before! My examples: Anne of Green Gables, the Chronicles of Narnia, Ella Enchanted

That person who will be your best friend forever and always even if life takes you in different directions and your only face contact is every few months, but you talk about them all the time and think about them occasionally and tell everyone how great they are and that they would love them if they met them. These books are close to the previous books. It might not be that you read them every month, but when someone asks you for suggestions, these are the books that you recommend. And when you read them, it's like meeting your friend again after being apart and just feeling like everything is right again. These are the books that grow with you and seem to change every time you read them, but are still basically the same. My example: Pride and Prejudice

That person you just met, and right now you are great friends, but it's too early to tell which of the previous kinds of friends they will turn into. Don't you just love meeting new books? You get into the new world, and you learn about new people. It's so fun, and exciting. Sometimes you know right away how you feel about them, but sometimes you get to be friends for a while, or maybe even forever. It's hard to tell. But right now, you get to have some fun. My examples: Beastly, I Am Number Four, the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, Little Women

What are some of your friends? (From any of the categories.)

1 comment:

  1. I just found your blog and LOVE this post. Recently I have been hunting down all the books I remember loving in Elementary School. It's been hard since I usually only remember the story line and not the title. But I've found a bunch of them and re-read them. Some of them I love still and some left me wondering why I ever liked it so much as a kid. ha.

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