Books commonly offer readers a new lens through which to view a narrative. Each book contains its own unique lens and scope depending upon the author, story structure, plot points, characters, as well as other contextual factors. While these lenses are finely crafted and honed by a writer in order to most effectively convey a story to a reader, the reader does not discard the lens upon completing the book. As readers, we carry the stories told and lessons learned alongside ourselves, applying them to new stories, as well as everyday life. Through my journey with the written word, I have discovered particular books that have undeniably shaped me as a reader, and as a human being. The lessons I have learned from these books are often mirrored in some capacity in my everyday life, and their relevance is undeniable. To this day, every book I read is influenced by and built upon my knowledge previously acquired from other books. In this way, our knowledge of the world we inhabit is constantly being influenced and impacted by the world of the written word.
Books are limitless in their ability to impact a reader. In my own experience, some have stuck with me for weeks or months after completion, while others have seemed to disappear the moment the book’s back cover is shut. And in some rare instances, a book can stay with you for a lifetime. Nowhere in my career as a reader has this been more true than in the case of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Originally read to me by my mother on a near-nightly basis, this book impacted my sense of morality before I knew that I even had one. Unable to understand symbolism at that young of an age, I could not fully comprehend the mother/son relationship of the boy and the giving tree. While this message flew swiftly above my head, I was able to grasp the concepts of sacrifice and selflessness. And though understanding a concept and putting it into practice are separate beasts entirely, this book opened my eyes to what it means to give to others openly and freely. The Giving Tree was the first reading experience I have ever had that touched something deep inside me and instantly impacted how I viewed the world and others. Through this book, I learned to read for personal enrichment. By this, I mean that I learned how to read reflectively, focusing on my own actions and behaviors with the hopes of improving them.
My first experience in reading for entering the narrative world came from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Being five years old upon the first book’s release, I was too young to read or even discover the series for myself. Luckily, my mother heard about the rapidly-growing phenomenon and began reading a chapter to me every night before bed. This quickly became the highlight of my day, as I would spend my days longing for the feeling of being whisked away to a magical school, far from the mundanity of an average, suburban life. For the first time, I learned that it is possible to escape through reading. As my mother would read these stories to me, I would let the images of characters and settings build themselves in my mind and play out in a way that felt so real, I could hardly comprehend it. By the time I had turned 8 years old and The Goblet of Fire had been released, I could no longer wait idly by while being read only one measly chapter a night. Not only did this series enable me to enter the narrative world for the first time, but it also showed me the value of reading alone as opposed to being read to. This series single-handedly sent me down a path of reading for personal enjoyment that I still follow to this day.
Coming off of my experience with Harry Potter, I hardly ever read anything other than fantasy books. Unbeknownst to me, I was stuck in one gear as a reader. Luckily, my fifth grade class was presented with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank as a collective reading project. Through this diary, I discovered the depravity humans are capable of, as well as the indomitable spirit possessed by others. This book taught me how to read for empathy. Before reading The Diary of a Young Girl, I had no feelings toward WWII, or any war for that matter. I did not have the tools necessary to grasp such a concept. That is, until I saw my own mortality mirrored in Anne Frank. For the first time, I put myself in the actual shoes of another person and felt the severity of the situation. In the same way that Harry Potter taught me to surround myself in worlds that don’t exist, The Diary of a Young Girl taught me to embrace and appreciate the one that does.
Later on in fifth grade, I formed a close connection with one of my teachers. She knew how much I had come to enjoy fantasy books, and must have seen how quickly I had taken to reading them. During the spring, she told me about a book that she thought would be perfect for me, and even went as far as buying a copy for me and giving it to me as a present. The book in question was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. While I had been introduced to fantasy worlds before, this book was my first foray into the world of sci-fi. At this time in my academic career, my love of science class was the only thing comparable to my love of reading. For this reason, this book became an instant favorite, and would pave the way for my interest in other sci-fi writers such as Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, and Ray Bradbury. Not only were my eyes opened to an exciting new genre in writing, but I also learned the value of recommendations from friends, a skill that would help me discover dozens of new books over the course of my academic career. Alternatively, Airborne by Kenneth Oppel was the first book that I specifically recall choosing on my own. I found the large, hardcover book one afternoon after school while spending time in the library. Upon diving into an alternate history where planes were never invented and luxury airships rule the skies, I was instantly hooked. I checked out the book, brought it home, and did not close it until it was finished. I do not recall ever being so utterly enthralled by a story in my life. Through this book, I learned the value in taking chances and discovering books on your own. By learning how to both accept recommendations and find my own books, I learned skills that allowed me to branch out and discover new types of writing.
With high-school came a slew of books that were not so much “recommended” as they were “forced” upon me. While I had previously only read for pleasure, I did not have much experience with being told what to read. Because of this, many books that I would have otherwise enjoyed were inducing dread and anxiety in my teenage self. When my sophomore class read The Stranger by Albert Camus, I had finally found another book that restored my passion for reading. Even despite being tested on the book’s underlying messages and character motivations, the story stuck with me and had me fascinated. I had never read anything written in that style, and had yet to be introduced to the concept of existentialism. Grappling with my own views on life, meaning, and religion at the time, I quickly gravitated toward this book, which taught me how to read for enlightenment. By this I mean that I learned how to analyze a narrative based on its messages and apply them to my own personal philosophy. While my views on the world have changed drastically since I was sixteen years old, the lessons I learned from this book still impact not only my reading, but my outlook on life.
The summer before my Junior year in high school, I picked up The Book Thief by Markus Zusak as an easy beach-read. Little did I know that I would be taken on a literary journey that would change my view of history. Having been taught about WWII from a very young age, I had rarely seen the event as anything other than an ancient battle that had been fought elsewhere. I understood the nature of war and the devastation caused by it, but for some reason that human element was alway missing when I thought about the war. Only with The Diary of a Young Girl had I been able to see the tragedy of these events, but it was still only in terms of the victims of the war. In The Book Thief, the reader is presented with many characters, good and bad alike. The way these characters interact conveyed to me not only the harshness and calamity of war, but the mundanity and mortality of human existence. Through the interactions in this book, the characters are depicted as being deep, complex, and containing both extreme light and dark. In creating characters as real as the people I interact with everyday, Zusak brought the war to my doorstep in a way that I could not ignore. If anything, this book taught me how to read for compassion.
Upon completing high school, I chose to finally read a book that I had heard about many times before. Having been previously recommended The Martian Chronicles by my father years earlier, I chose to read a different book by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451. I sat down with the book one summer afternoon, and did not move from my chair until I had finished it. I then spent the next day reading the book two more times. For some reason, this book got its hooks into me and has never let go. In my mind, this book exists partially as an “ode to books” in that it demonstrates what human existence without books could look like. Bradbury masterfully blends science fiction into a narrative that feels otherwise realistic, which creates a feeling of unease in the reader. This book single-handedly shines a light on the reasons why books are important, as well as how quickly and easily they can be replaced or eliminated if we do not embrace and appreciate them. This allowed me to read for reflection, or rather to look back at the books I have read in my life and appreciate just how much has come from them.
In each of these reading experiences, I learned things about myself that would go on to shape me permanently. Much in the same way that Fahrenheit 451 allowed me to inspect my reading practices and habits, this exercise of a reflective narrative has enabled me to evaluate my role as not only a reader, but a writer as well. Through these practices, I have learned to think more critically about the written word, and to use the sets of lenses I have acquired over the years to impact and influence any books I read or pieces I write in the future.
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