On The Joys Of Reading

(Those Rainy Days Of Just Curling Up With A Good Book)

Briar Elwood

Why re-read a book? I see my sister re-reading a Batman comic book that she’s just read and think “Why? Why would you do such a thing?” Isn’t there too little time in the world already? Okay, okay, I admit it, back when Harry Potter was a new, huge thing, I read the first four books over fifteen times before moving on to something else. But now I’m highly regretting it. Back then, in grade school, I had all the time in the world to read whatever books I wanted but now? High School? Ha! I’m only reading Frankenstein because it’s for my Language and Composition class! And yet there are so many other books I wish I were reading. I still need to finish The Silmarillion, The Odyssey. I’m dying to read Paradise Lost, dozens of Shakespeare’s works...yet I have no time! Why waste your time re-reading a book, however good it may be, when there are so many others out there that are just as good or, heaven forbid, better!

Almost makes me wish I had more Reading or Literature classes. Almost. Not quite. Because that brings up another issue. The so-called “themes” or “messages the authors are trying to convey” that we must always discuss. As an example:

Eighth grade Literature, Mrs. Magel. One of the best teachers I’ve had, one of those teachers who encourage creativity rather than sticking it to the book. We had an entire course on Edgar Allen Poe. We learned about how literally psychotic he was while still a complete genius and read such works as The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Masque of Red Death and so on. Then one day we were having a class discussion on The Raven and Mrs. Magel asks us,

“What is the theme of this poem? What is the author trying to convey?”

What did people answer? What did we eventually decide on? I don’t remember. Why? Because of that simple question, my mind went blank. It lost focus. There was only one string of thoughts going through my head at that point and they were, as follows:

“WHAT?!?! The man was literally insane!! There was no message!!!”

Okay, maybe he was trying to convey something but do you really think that we, as at least less mentally impaired persons, would have the ability to understand what kind of a message a deranged person might be trying to convey? No!

All right, so I understand that some authors are trying to tell us something, to warn us of something. Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example, in The Scarlet Letter. One of the things I picked up was the idea not to force your beliefs on someone else. And I understand that. I get that. I’m good with it. Writers from that time period and before were usually trying to tell us something. All of those myths from Ancient Greece or Rome or Egypt. They’ve all got blatant messages. But nowadays? Do you really think The Cat In The Hat has a message?

Maybe that’s not so good of an example. I mean, think back to grade school days when they asked you which one of these three things the author was trying to do with their story: inform, warn, or entertain. ...Couldn’t they all be to entertain? I know when I write it’s not to warn anybody or inform someone. I write because I like to write. Because it’s fun, it’s something I enjoy doing and I love entertaining other people with my talents! Has any English teacher ever thought that maybe, just maybe, Shakespeare just wrote Much Ado About Nothing because it was fun and it made other people laugh? Of course not! That’s preposterous!

Now, I realize that, yes, if you look into my writings with the critical eye of an English teacher, you will see a message or two. That is inevitable. My beliefs will naturally come out into what I write, that’s just the way things work. You try writing a full-length novel, plot line and everything, without having some sort of message come out into it. The Cat In The Hat actually could be a warning against letting strangers into the house, right? But how many times would you have to re-read that book to realize that? How long would you have to think about it? Took me a while, that’s for sure.

So whatever happened to just curling up with a good book on a rainy day and just reading for the fun of it? For the laughs, the tears, the thrills of feeling like you are there with the characters? Whatever happened to just the want of being entertained by a book? Has it been overrun by Hollywood? Yet, even movies have messages now. Thank heavens we’re not having classes about “what the screen writer is trying to convey in this movie.” I get the shudders just thinking about it.

There are too many wonderful books out there to waste your time on analyzing and re-reading just one possibly mediocre book. I’d re-read the Harry Potter books over and over again, picking up new things each time, and speculating about the future of the characters with a new light every time. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing! Fan fiction is wonderful; I love it with all my heart. But I don’t waste books on fan fiction. I save television for that. Do you know how many times I’ve read the seventh Harry Potter book? Once. Do you know why? Because I have so many other books to read! I’m not going to pick apart every detail in that book so I can clearly understand every turn made. It’s a great book, no doubt about it! But there are more books out there, with equal greatness or, yes; it’s possible, better!

So give me a library, I’m going to go read...because I enjoy it.