Why I Read

Currently, I am reading The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict (I know, I haven't updated my 'Currently Reading' section of my blog since last summer) which features a character whose name is John: a young boy of thirteen or fourteen years who lost his parents. When I first met John he's described as having "numerous pitted scars. [He could] have some contagious disease. [...but he said,] 'They're only chicken pox scars, I'm not contagious anymore--it's been a year. They just didn't go away like they usually do.'"

Chapters later, because the book is illustrated, I am treated to a picture of John who does look like he has freckles. And I smiled. Because I, too, look like I have freckles but that isn't at all what they are. I smiled because I encountered a kindred spirit in a way I did not expect.

The Mysterious Education is hardly a book about looks but often the best books are the ones in which you learn unexpected things.

Most books are often full of characters who 'sparkle' or go from ugly duckling to HELLOSWAN! Don't get me wrong: I don't begrudge them for bedazzling the world with one glance, but sometimes I feel as though every author is eager to make a physically perfect being who is humanized with flaws. But is it so far-fetched to humanize them with their looks?

So far, I've observed that plain-looking characters are human to begin with and whatever flaws they have need no dramatization.  Generally, I have found most dramatization forced--I am not suggesting that perfect-looking people can't or don't have horrific back stories- that would be too presumptuous and besides, we are all still people no matter our looks-, but it is a bit tiresome only to find books about Mary Sues and Gary Stus who've got everything on two legs fawning after them while they have to save the world.

Thus, as a warning: should you have any fangirlish feelings for Divergent or The Hunger Games Trilogy you probably shouldn't talk to me.





I realize I read because it is an existential experience: I find a piece of me tucked away in pages full of words a complete stranger might've taken seven years to write. I read because I am eager to find characters and authors who share my secrets and questions and fears and dreams and insecurities. I read to feel less alone. To encounter different perspectives. To come across friends who don't hide in coffee shops or book stores but are trapped in basements or live in faraway countries. So.