The freedom of reading

Just to put it simply... I love reading. I always have and I will always try and find a bit of time to take out and indulge in a good old book. I admit I always found it difficult to find the time out to do as such. Yet nowadays with my friends all living far away at university and me stuck in my own little world, I like to sit back in my free time and enter a new world of fiction. I think the main reason for that is because it's a good distraction for me, it keeps my mind occupied and creative rather than sitting dwelling on my loneliness and how much I truly miss them.

I think books are so powerful. I think its incredible that a handful of words can trigger such strong emotions, making you laugh out loud one minute and hysterically crying the next. I never used to cry at books no matter how sad, then once I read a particular series of books that for some reason really got to me and there I was crying bucket loads. Ever since, I find myself shedding a tear at the smallest of tragedies hidden beneath the words on page. The hopeless romantic stuck inside of me is admittedly a big Nicholas Sparks fan; the epitome of tragic romance. So there I'll be, sitting on a train finishing the last couple of chapters, tears spilling from my eyes while undoubtedly a few curious glances are being pointed my way. (And I hate to admit that's happened more than once...)

But it's that amazing moment where you're so gripped in this other world you forget your surroundings and get lost in the emotions just from the words on the page in front of you and your eyes just can't leave the page. And then you come to the end and for a minute you sit there in a slight daze. Heartbroken at the fact the relationships you just formed with the people in the book are over, that you've come to the end and it takes a moment or two to come back to reality. I love that feeling. Not the one where you're at the end of the book but that moment you are forced to put it down and it takes a moment to realise the footsteps you were just walking in and life you were just living really were just fiction; a figure of your imagination due to the stimuli of a few words.

In one of the books I read the other day there was a quote I remember really well, It went... "I love reading. Books give me what I don't have in real life". For some reason this quote has stuck with me and it struck me just how true it is.  Not only do they give you what you don't have they can help you forget what you do. Sometimes we need to escape and by letting ourselves in to the world of fiction, getting so caught up in between the words, you find yourself able to forget what is going on in your head and in your life... The perfect escape.

Fiction is amazing in my opinion. I think it's amazing how you can create relationships with characters, admiring them, hating them, loving them. When it comes to films and television the characters are there before your eyes but by reading, your mind is the one that creates them. You see them how you want to see them and there's such a freedom that comes to being able to use your own imagination to further create a story. I also think reading has the capability to change your perspective on your own life by witnessing another persons point of view. And occasionally I find myself reading things that are so relatable that I find it hard to believe I didn't write it myself.