Dear Books,
I read not for the story or for the satisfaction, but the people. I read for the people because they have a story that you live to share. The people in your stories are only characters on a page, until I read. Then, their world becomes my own and we’re both perpetually bound to the motionless slabs of paper, the pages.
I’m engrossed in movies for the same reason as books; the characters. The characters’, mesmerizing and beautiful, share their passion through their ability to take us along their journey to find and experience their world. That is why I live for books. After reading, you show me a unique, what-if-this-could-be-me, sort of moment. You give me a view of the world around myself through the characters’ own eyes. Nobody could imagine these visions of a greater world without you.
Dear Books, I love you for you opened others and my own hearts to the possibilities of this infinite universe. With books, I am what I make myself out to be, not what others see me as. In “The Outsiders”, one’s true self shown through in the story of a boy who was classified as a waste by society but becomes a hero after he gallantly saves kids from a burning church. There are limitless possibilities if only I dream to achieve them, if only I pursue them, and if only I keep them forever in my heart.
Therefore, you hold the key to all and my own prophecy unforetold. Books hold our futures and create how we see those futures. For the characters give us their dreams, and we make them into our reality. Through you, we can make our dreams whatever we see fit, like “I Am Malala”, where a girl as innocent as an angel, dreamed to have an education, and believed everyone is entitled to the same. Malala, sadly, was shot for her beliefs. She survived and refused to give in to fear and persevered because that was her dream and nobody was going to hold her back. These stories help to show that although you are read by millions, you can also always serve as one person’s life chronicle.
You help me envision a world I was not born in time to see for myself. Historical fiction books help us see the atrocities and beauties unbeknownst to us such as, “The Boy Who Dared”, which tells me of Helmuth Hübener, a boy who chose to stand against the Nazis and their inhumane treatments of Jews.
Romance novels tell of the perfect relationship that always is questionable in the end. “Lovely War”, which is one of my favorites, tells the story of Aphrodite, Goddess of love, and Hephaestus, her husband. Even though Aphrodite is supposed to be the perfect love, they were still incompatible for each other.
There will always be a story that wants to be told whether it’s happy or sad, funny or horrific. There will always be another story. That’s why you are so incredible. You’re a time machine that never runs out of batteries, that never dies. Wherever humans go, you will follow and keep telling us your stories.
Dear Books, I love you because you keep me alive. You keep me breathing. Loving, mesmerizing, and beautiful, Books with every part of my body you force me to keep turning that fine grainy paper, page by page. You keep pushing me to find out what’s next, and every time I contemplate just closing you up and forgetting, I simply cannot do it. I don’t stop and won’t stop until I know what happened to the little blue hippo and whether or not he saved Bamboo? I have to know because the story enthralled me with its words, and somehow always seems to find more to keep me hooked in its grasp.
Dear Books, you will be with me forever no matter what. One day, I fear that I’ll leave you behind. I know it’s harsh but sooner or later I’ll maybe lose the spark that binds me to literature? The truth is, my mind can only hold and share so many stories, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying to cram in another. Eventually though, the forest fire will die down to the flame on a match and maybe we’ll have to part ways? Still, your dreams will become mine, and my reality will bind with yours, like a vice made of steel. But it will be ok, I know you’ll always be waiting there when I come back.
