Books like first loves

Recently, I finished reading Ursula LeGuin's 'Lavinia' – a tremendously well-written book that I really, truly enjoyed. The kind that keeps you up through the night, just so you can see what happens. And I've been having a really good run in the past few weeks, when it comes to books, every one I've read has been good (some even bordering on great) and many of them have kept me up.

I look up and see that the clock's approaching four AM and here I am, still reading. This has become normal in these past few days and it's been awhile since I had so many good books at once. It's a real satisfaction, for me.
And I was thinking about this, you know? There are so many who view reading as something passe, or as a show-off thing. You know, reading's great, it's something cultured that you can do, just so you can tell others you read. It marks you as smart. Those are usually the people who've been reading the same book for the last year or so, so not actual readers, but mere posers. See, they wouldn't understand.
Why lose sleep over a book?
Your well-being is far more important than anything you might find in a book. So they would argue, and they'd have a point. But books are also for your well-being. They make sure you're thriving up there.

Now, I've said this before and I'll say it again, I think reading and writing are the closest we can come to actual magic. The most fantastic thing one can do. Now, why the hell would I choose sleep over this?

And as I said, I really loved 'Lavinia', it's just a beautiful book, the sort that fills you with passion and has you running around to your friends going 'you gotta read this'.
Furthermore, it's historical fiction – the imagined life of Lavinia, the wife of Aeneas of Troy. Now, history and me go way back. I first fell in love with history when I was about 8 or 9, I developed an obsession for Henry the Eighth that then stretched out to all sorts of eras and people. To this day, I have a magnet collection of English rulers on my fridge.
But it's an obsessions that in the past couple of years has faded, I'm sad to say. Just like in a relationship, we just kind of drifted apart. I found I no longer had the time or patience to worry about the lives of other people, to fangirl over the latest book on Lucrezia Borgia.
But this book, this Lavinia, took me back to that time, when I did have the time and patience to do it. And it was so much like coming back home...It was like meeting an old friend, you know? Or like going back to a place where you've always been welcome. It felt so good to be back in the realm of history, felt so...safe. I missed this.

It reminded me of that time, of my youth as a reader, of the books I loved then. And it got me thinking of first loves...of books, of course. I recently came upon the idea of 'the first book that got me into reading' and it's been on my mind. Do we even remember that time? Could I tell you what the first book that sparked my interest for reading was?
Hmm, hard to say. Looking back, I think the first books that I loved reading were these tiny kids books about witches.

When I was a kid, there was a show about a group of girls with superpowers and naturally, you could get anything with them, including books. And I think the first books I loved belonged to that series.
But they were silly things, not so much books, but a collection of funny bits, quizzes, imagined dialogues between the characters of the show...that sort of thing.
So, I moved further in my search, looking for the first “real” book that made me love reading and I came back to where I started – to the historical fiction I mentioned earlier. I remember getting this book on Anne Boleyn and loving it. It was the first “real” book I read. I think. Remember, I'm old and my memory's faulty.

I'd always loved reading, but up to that point, it had been kid books, nothing big....And I was really lucky to find a book that I liked as my gateway into “real” books. Not necessarily a good book (because as far as historical books go, it wasn't), but a book I could like, a book that had enough interesting bits and excitement and savory characters to make me enjoy the experience and want to do it again.

Kind of like a relationship. You know, if the first one's bad, you're gonna end up with all sorts of nasty little scars in your head that might put you off loving completely.

Seems I liked it so much I bought it twice...

Now, I don't even want to imagine what would've happened if I'd come upon a horrible book that first time. It might've put me off reading forever. Good Lord...

And this brings me back to the idea that kids should be allowed to read whatever they like. Seriously, if I'd had rigorous check-ups on the books I read as a child, I'd probably hate reading now. The above was a book about the mistress of a king, who's kinda also sleeping with her sister, then she becomes queen and he kills her. Not really appropriate for a ten year old, is it? For a very long time, my favorite books were Anne Rice's 'Vampire Chronicles' – gory and highly sexual. And yet, I loved them. And no, the gory bits or the inappropriate parts didn't scar me or whatever. I loved those books mainly because they were my choice. They were books I wanted to read and that I could read. Now, if I'd been told I couldn't read them, maybe next time I wouldn't have even tried.

If the only thing a child can read is the boring, tasteless, age-appropriate garbage they push in schools, why would he bother?

Today, I see the same thing in my brother, who's ten. He's been reading throughout his life – we've been through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and other such collections, but those were kiddy stuff, really. They were full of drawings and doodles. And a couple of months ago, I took him to the library with me and he found this book – a young adult book about some weird post-apocalyptic world, plagued by a virus that melts humans and technology together.
A big boy book. Without pictures, just full text. And believe it or not, he sat reading through it, willingly. And when he wasn't reading, he'd get this far away look.
'Oh, I'm just thinking about the book,' he'd say.

A book that he chose. If I had chosen it for him, he might've hated it. Just goes to show how important it is for kids to choose for themselves. If you, as a parent or relative, choose the book he should read, he's going to be reading it for you...

...When he should be only reading for himself.

Thank you for reading,