There is something about reading a book that just gives my whole life a new step up. When I am feeling like I have nothing exuberant or diverting going on in my life, I can just simply pick up a book, relax, and hear the world around me fade out. Now I do not mean “tuning it out” or sitting in peace. No. The world completely fades out. I do not exist within this world and neither do the people around me. Reading a book is like getting a new identity, moving to a new location, and becoming friends with some of the most complex people you will ever meet. It doesn’t stop there, you not only meet them, but you get to know every single thing about them. The things you find out, the sensory details that you can almost actually sense; it is truly amazing. I love to live vicariously through the characters in a book. I love to live vicariously in their town. Why is that?
Why is it that we as our own individuals with much to offer, want to live vicariously through someone else? Are our lives too boring that we cannot stop and realize maybe we should start living our own lives? Even our parents or friends sometimes live vicariously through us. So why? To be quite honest, I do not really have the answer. I think that we sometimes need to escape. Some people do that through movies, through music, or through books. I've also realized that every time I start a new book, the things in my surroundings begin to align with characters or events in the book. So some parts of the book (which I am using to escape), actually find their way into my reality. I find this really cool.
I think there is something different about living through a page, rather than a movie. Reading all of the words on the page about to uncover some underlying secret you have been dying to know. It is an indescribable feeling to be able to be conscious deep within the writing. I just finished Summer of 69’ by Elin Hilderbrand. It was very aimed toward encapsulating the summer of 1969 and the years in the 70s that followed. Based in Nantucket, and some parts in Boston; it was a great beach read, my favorite! Maybe you can read it too and let me know what you think. :)
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