Why I Love Reading {1}

So I got to thinking about trying to add more discussion posts and variety to the blog and discuss more about reading habits and adding in more personal posts. I came up with an idea and I don’t know how many of these little entries I can come up with or do but I wanted to explore and look at the number of reasons why I love reading or what makes me love a book. The first, and the most obvious, to me was connecting with characters. We all love a character that reminds them of themselves or have a trait you know is unique to you that a character shows up sharing. You feel a connection. You feel involved. You feel like you “get” the character.

I find myself doing this a lot with even the most miniscule detail. When I read, I love to connect with the characters and get all the feels. I’ll do this by trying to find a similarity with the main character. What they look like. They’re personality. Their vocabulary. I live for this. As humans, we are so complex and we have so many different faces we wear and personality traits that make us unique, that I find it so amazing when I can find something I have in common with the hundreds of characters I read about. It doesn’t always happen. But there is a magical moment when I find myself reading about a character that I’m like, whoa, that sounds a lot like me. Mostly, it’s the smartass, snarky characters who don’t know when to shut up or back down from a fight *coughRoseandKatnisscough*. But I love this! It makes me laugh or feel like yeah, I could hack it in a YA novel. And hey, maybe I could get a swoony boy to fall for me. Just kidding…kinda…not really...

And then there are a few characters that it just gets real creepy with. You know, when a character either says or acts waaaay too similar to you. I got this from Nastya in The Sea of Tranquility and, more recently, Queenie in Nowhere but Home. I wrote in my review for TSoT all the things that made us similar. It was small stuff. Insignificant in the long run of life but it was unique to me. I was stunned while reading because every 20 minutes I was saying, whoa that’s totally something I say, do, or love. Creeped me out in the best way.

Queenie from Nowhere but Home never backs down from a fight. She almost goes looking for it in way. I identified with this completely. I was bullied as a kid and adolescent and while I may be the nicest person you ever meet...you cross me and it will be something you regret. My mother herself always says to me, ‘why can’t you just get along with everyone?’ and ‘why are you always the one arguing with people?’ Well, MOM it’s because I can’t stand other people being disrespectful, ignorant, or rude. So YES, I AM going to say something and YES I’m going to stand up to people. Reading about Queenie having a similar attitude and owning it made me love her even more than I normally would have.

Sky from Hopeless is another character I found myself really relating to. While I cannot relate to the horrors she has been dealt in life, her inner voice and thoughts hit me in such a way that I thought was so unique to me. There are a few things that she believes and thinks that just BLEW me away with similarity creepiness. I felt like I was alone in my thinking and there Colleen Hoover goes saying exactly what I’ve thought in my head for years.

I love moments like this because I find myself understanding the character and their actions so much better. It makes my reading experience so much more in-depth and more personal if I can find even one small thing to connect to and build off of. The books that don't resonate and stay with me are the ones whose characters I have nothing to relate to. I really enjoy trying to find a piece of myself in each character that I love.

Do you guys do this, too? Do you find something to connect yourself to a character? Or do you like more of the objective view?