Reading is an activity that dates back to the beginning of man’s time on Earth, when the cavemen would depict pictures on stone in order to communicate their ideas to each other and even to later generations. Communication is only one of the immeasurable purposes that reading can serve. Reading may also be used for building knowledge, practical application, for understanding, and so on. I find that the best purpose for reading, however, is to find an alternate world or a place of refuge. In The Gutenberg Elegies, Sven Birkerts seems to agree with me, saying that when he was younger books for him were “an ‘other’ place away from my immediate surroundings” (Birkerts 35). Later in his writings though, he discusses how he now reads to “appreciate illusions, savor subtleties of expression and thematic ambiguities” (Birkerts 45). Unlike Birkerts, who for the most part believes that this change is for the better, I believe that reading should always be used as a tool of escape; this view of mine was shaped by my reading as a small child, my discovery of Megan McCafferty and Jessica Darling, and my readings of the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling.
When I was a child, almost every summer my mother would take my sister and me to the library to join the “Sneaks” summer reading program. This program did not entail much, but my mother pushed my sister and me to read at least one book a week. At first I was resistant to this reading; I wanted to play outside in my imaginary land that only a young child could create. Soon though, I discovered that I could be just as imaginative if not more so, in the land of literature. My favorite books were the books of the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, which were exciting tales of aliens, mummies, and the like; these books proved to be my greatest escape as a child. You may not think that a child needs much of an escape because they are so young and carefree, but when I was a child my family was plagued with cancer; both my grandmother and my mother suffered from the disease within the time that I was in elementary school. While other children could still easily make their own imaginative lands right out of their heads, my imagination was drowning in images of hospitals, doctors and death. Goosebumps for me was almost like a template, something I could use to re-create the imagination that, in those days, for me was hard to find. This time for me was the time that “my sense of books as a refuge” developed the most; this sense is identical to the way Birkerts originally felt towards books (Birkerts 35).
I was in about eighth grade when I discovered the book Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty. This was a book about a young high school girl who was surprisingly sarcastic and somewhat of an outsider; in other words, in my mind at least, she was a mirror image of me. In all of my experiences of reading, I had and still have not ever felt a stronger connection with any character. The character of Jessica Darling was my written twin and as I followed her through crushes, first kisses and school rumors, I grew closer and closer to her. Luckily for me, there were four succeeding books so I have gotten to grow up most of my life with a character that I can identify with more than I can with most real people that I have ever met. Megan McCafferty changed my view of books forever, not only do I love books more, but I now know that there are characters in literature with whom I can truly identify. Despite the fact that this series was so similar to my life, it still proved useful as a place of refuge. For the time that I was immersed in these books, I would completely forget about my own life in which there was constantly hurtful rumors and drama circulating, which was the typical life of any adolescent girl. These novels though served an extra purpose because when I was finished I could compare my life with Jessica’s and sometimes even help myself through the common problems and hurtful situations any adolescent girl is faced with daily.
There is also another series that deeply affected my life, one which proved to be the biggest escape from the real world that I have ever found: the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling. I am well aware that this series has no real literary merit, but I do not believe that literary merit is what defines a book as excellent or otherwise. I first began to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when I was in second grade and I was immediately entranced by the magic and the witty characters; however, like most elementary students I stopped reading the books as they became too heavy for me to carry. Looking back I do not regret this decision because I know now that I did not truly appreciate the books for what they were; if I had kept reading them then, I may not have developed the deep connection that I have with the series today. I began reading Harry Potter again when I was beginning high school, which for me was an immense adjustment. I had been separated from many friends that I had been with since kindergarten and thrown into a new place with new teachers, a new layout and a new schedule; I needed very much to escape from the real world. What better way to escape from the real world than to turn to an imaginative world of witchcraft and wizardry? In my opinion, there is none; I still can get so caught up in those books that I dream about magic for nights.
When I read books, I read them as Birkerts once did, with “body and soul, living vicariously;” not as he reads now “with only one part of the self” (Birkerts 37). I absolutely prefer my method of reading; it allows me to leave the world and my problems behind, if only even for a few minutes, and fully submerge myself into the many different worlds of literature. Be it zombies and ghouls, potions and wizards, or even the realistic life of Jessica Darling; as long as it is not my own life, it allows me to escape. Birkerts now reads to “grasp the fine points of technique and heed the structural signs,” but I wonder what exactly the point of this is (Birkerts 45). Is it so that you can sit there and just be proud of yourself that you understand how the author writes? I find this way of reading to be over-analytical and stressful. Books to me are stress relievers, the escape that they provide is immeasurable and I would not have it any other way.
