Reading books is wonderful. It gives you not only an escape from your daily life, new viewing points to just about everything you do and so much wisdom and joy, but also the gift of being able to discuss these reads with your friends, family and even complete strangers.
Last night my dad and I watched the Oscar winning movie The Reader, which is a historical fiction film that tells the story of a boy and an older woman. The woman is charged guilty of working front line in the horrors of Nazi German camps years earlier. The boy often reads to the lady and literacy is all in all a key factor in how the plot plays out.
Then, this morning, after a well slept night of our unconscious twisting and turning around the topics of the film, we discussed the movie. We also talked about how we had different angles coming in to view the movie based on our own knowledge and experiences of the history portrayed in the film. The conversation was a really heartfelt one, which spiralled out to all kinds of books more or less associated with the original topic (The Book Thief, All the Light We Cannot See and COUNTLESS others where mentioned ;)). But all in all it was so nice to discuss these different books we had read, what thoughts and feelings they had aroused in us, and how they had affected the way we view life and especially in this case, the movie.
It is hardly a a thing I remember to be grateful for -being literate, having practically unlimited access to millions of books (without censorship), and having people around me to share these things with. It's just one of those things we take for granted too often. So I would like to remind all you book worms out there to embrace every story you pick up, every line your eyes run over and every new thought they throw your way. It really is quite magical! And I mean that without trying to sound sugar coated or cliché.
-Anna
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