When I write blog posts, I love to spend a while thinking about them beforehand: I put time into researching various ideas, carefully constructing and building my points with a lot of thought about which words I want to use. For today's post, however, this process has been absolutely impossible for me to work through and there is one overarching reason for this: I am reading one of the best books I have EVER read. I upload blog posts every Monday and Thursday, but I am sitting here at my computer, at 3.30pm on a Sunday afternoon, with nothing prepared for this week's new posts because I have spent all of my time reading and instead of stressing about this, ALL I can do is go back to my book! Today's post, therefore, will be a little bit of a shortcut for me, but I'm hoping you won't mind. It's going to be about what reading a great book can do to you.
I am just beginning the 4th and final book of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels and I am totally in love with them. I will be writing about these books in more detail in a separate blog post (in which I will put in my usual time and effort!), but, for now, I just have to tell you how great these books are. I feel like, to say I can't put the book down is an understatement - I am living and dreaming along with these characters and I feel euphoric! I think about them in everything that I do; their decisions affect my own decisions, their attitudes and lifestyles are heavily influencing my own, I dream about them at night and I find Ferrante's writing completely addictive. It has really been a while since a book made me feel like this, if ever, and I thought it was interesting to write about.
If a book has ever made you feel like this, you will know what I mean. I'm talking about being transported and living in a new world totally removed from our real one, making new friends, learning new ideas and hanging onto every single word as if it is the last one. As a musician, it is usually listening to an incredibly inspiring piece of music or watching an exceptional concert that can induce these feelings. Sometimes a wonderfully and sensitively made movie can do the same thing. Although, concerts and movies are unfortunately over much to quickly - at least a book can last a couple of days. But, whatever the medium, I don't think this experience and these feelings occur all that often, and how sad that is!!
Maybe there is a downside to this. Perhaps it is unhealthy to feel so addicted to a book - what will I do when I have finished?! It is, afterall, a very powerful reaction to have to anything, and if it stops you from being able to carry out your work as normal, is that a good thing? I also imagine that when I have finished reading these books, I will find everything in my normal life so much more boring and grey than I did before. But actually, I think that these experiences are absolutely necessary to life. In a world full of books that are just OK and not that great, passable concerts and below average movies, how inspiring and amazing is it to find a shining diamond every now and then.
Perhaps you are not someone who is a big reader, or you have just never felt this way about a book before. For me, I find the written word beautiful and fascinating and I would encourage you at all costs to keep looking for that one diamond of a book that can make you feel like this. This HAS to be what life is about!
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