Bring back Books: Good Books are Like Good Tea, Let Them Steep

Dearest Readers,

A good book is like good tea, it needs to steep. A novel that makes you think and reanalyze your take on life can’t be put down and forgotten at the drop of a hat. It sticks with you. For me, I go into what I call a ‘post-reading induced coma.’Note: This blog post will be half philosophical half suggestions. I just wanted to say that from the outset, so you know not all of this will be super deepness. End note.

After I finish a book, all I can do is think about it for the next few hours. Forget homework, attending meetings, or any sort of general obligations (hahaa joke…I do everything I need to…except my homework that is). I have to focus on the book after I finish. I feel like it rolls around in my brain. I keep rehashing various scenes and thinking through different characters. I just finished The Help by Kathryn Stocketty (amazing and recommended to me by my mother) and I can’t stop thinking about the book’s moral implications on my life.

(I know, I know I’m a nerd, obvi). But the weirdest post-book-Adorkable-Phonomenon of all, and I don’t know if this is just me, is I start to think in the narration of the author. For example, I think in the author’s short sentences, I depict scenes around me as they would by using certain choice adjectives or an accent or a rambling manner. I think in their voice. (If you do this please comment on this post, so I know I am not the only freak out there.) All in all, readers, we should all be concerned that I am very much on the brink of losing both my identity and apparently my own speech patterns. But in all seriousness, a good book becomes a part of you in some way, shape or form. It gets under your skin and inside your brain wiring.

I love books, in case you haven’t gathered, and I think one of the greatest struggles of our fast-moving collegiate, and in general, world is our inability to sit down, read, and let the book steep. I dedicate this post to the written word. Remember when you read a book for fun? (If you were like me that is) When the smell of an old book could make you smile, the sound of the cover cracking led to a rush of excitement in your stomach, and you could sit down and read for hours with your mind lost in a fantastical world so much greater than yourself. Read for pleasure again. Make time. We learn so much from books.

In order to stick with this theme of book appreciation, I decided to present 5 of my all time favorite books that I would suggest to the universe and I don’t think are always at the top of everyone’s list. (I didn’t include Harry Potter or the obvious choices like 1984 or The Great Gatsby, but we all know they are up there.) The ironic part about me including my book recommendations is two fold: I am down right awful at taking other people’s book suggestions, so if you don’t ever look at these books again except on this screen, I won’t be offended. Second, most of these books I had to read for school, which goes against my whole premise that we should read for fun…sigh…aw well. (As a note: if you love any of these books please comment on the end of this post, and if you have any book suggestions for my summer reading list please leave a comment…I can’t say I’ll read it, but I will give it a valiant effort!)

Books I love, for your reading pleasure:

In Cold Blood By Truman Capote. This might be the best book I’ve ever read. It’s kind of journalistic non-fiction work (I know that right there sounds thrilling), about two men who killed an entire family for, essentially, $50. The book comes directly from Capote’s interviews with the two men, and he makes them into surprisingly sympathetic characters by combining their backgrounds and personal history with the crime. Capote is the author of Breakfast at Tiffanys…in case you were wondering.East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Yes he wrote Grapes of Wrath, no this book is not that painfully long (though I myself was a grapes fan). The book is expertly crafted as the story of essentially two twin brothers trying to break free of the Cain Able trap. Hard to explain. Just read it.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book depicts an old man recalling his time in the circus, but it’s actually realistic and kind of a disturbing yet enjoyable plot line. I think Oprah loved it at some point….I can’t decide if that makes me like the book more or less. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Let me start out with this: I hate animal books. But this animal book, about a colony of rabbits of all things, creates such a realistic sub world, it bridges on science fiction.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. This is the social activist choice. It’s the biography of Paul Farmer who started Partner’s in Health in Haiti to provide free health care to those who need it. It’s the true story of one man saving the world one person at a time.

I hope you find at least one of these suggestions moderately enjoyable. (I thought about adding my favorite childhood books: 21 Balloons and the Westing Game, but decided against it, so I put them in these parenthesis in case you want a blast from an adorkable past.)

Lesson to be Learned: Reading is good. You relax, you learn, and you escape for a few minutes. Read what you want, and don’t feel guilty about pleasure reads too (I went through my romantic chick lit stage…who am I kidding? I still am). All reading is good reading, and it just seems so much more constructive then television.

So crack open a book, smell the delicious pages of text and lap it up.

Bookwormily Yours,

Adorkable

ps. for the first time in a while these pictures aren't mine :(, but it's because they are books I don't have with me so all the pictures should be credited to other bloggers. and my title isn't a song...don't be too sad some rules are made to be broken.