What Makes a Book the Book of Your Life
The characteristics of books that can leave an indelible mark on a reader and a writer
“Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart.” — The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Ever since I started to write regularly, I realised that I became a different reader. I’m not just superficially leafing through the pages of a book, I don’t just enjoy the story or root for the heroes and villains, I don’t just read anymore: I absorb. And I absorb with a writer’s mind.
I still devour the characters and soak up the stories, I breathe in the air they breathe out and I hold my breath as they suffer, I laugh when they are happy and I cry when I can’t take it anymore. But it’s not the same passive reading anymore, it’s labour. I analyse and dissect, stories, people, paragraphs, words. I get lost in the flow of chapters, contemplating structure and style.
This made me a lot more critical and picky. It’s not enough to read just any book. Not every story is worth my time. Not every character deserves my attention. All words are not equal.
At first, I thought it was a bad thing. It seemed like a bad thing because I stopped enjoying a lot of books, I started them and I either finished them out of discipline or just put them away. I lost interest after bad dialogues, got put off by useless characters thrown in randomly, confusing storylines bored me to death.
I kept going back to novels I had already read a hundred times to find peace in the beauty and familiarity, picking apart well-known stories entertained me more than to give chance to new ones that might disappoint.
And they kept me captured for another time, again and again, always making me feel, always making me smile or laugh or get excited at the right places — even when I knew it already by heart.
I also realised that when I choose books to read, I read for pleasure more than for information. I read to get away from reality, not to add more layers to it with habits, productivity or philosophical thoughts about the aspect of it. The…
