The Summer Hols- So Slowly!

Its a funny thing, time. When you want it to go quickly, it seems to go ever slower, and the inverse is quite true as well. And even when you dont care how fast or slow time passes, it often seems to rush past in great dollops, or stretch a few minutes into an eternity. Just yesterday, the day seemed to rush past at triple speed, whereas earlier in the week, it was as if it had almost stopped. Does anyone else find that, or is it just me?

We all look forward to the summer holidays (with the exception of Harry Potter, bless his fictional soul), and even more so to any holidays abroad or elsewhere in the country. My family are going away not a week from now, but unfortunately the last week seems to be taking even longer than it takes the average 6 year-old to calm down after eating an entire bag of sweets! Oh well, 'All things come to those who wait' after all, so if we just wait long enough, we'll get there.

The Freedom to Read

One thing I love about reading is that you can chose what to read. You can change the genre depending on what you feel like reading; what sort of world you want to suberge yourself in. If you are calm, you can chose to read a calm book, or even a more adventurous book if you feel the need to change your mood. What you can read is limited only by the space on your bookshelf (or by the amount of floor space left, depending on how many books you own). You can get a fresh book if needs be, and with new things like internet books and kindles, said fresh book is never far away.

We all have favourite genres- mine probably being adventure-fantasy. You generally own a fair number of series' or books from this genre, so we can access it easily. We chose our 'favouite' because we enjoy it, but its nice to read outside the genre too. Just yesterday I was reading The Best of Sherlock Holmes, and although I admit the older version was a little boring in places, I am glad to have read it and am now more familiar with the style of book. Do you read outside of you chosen genre, and step outside the box?

The Words on the Page

I love to read. The feeling of a book in the hand cannot be matched by any other. Only the occasional sound of a page turning can break the tranquil silence that does enter my mind when I read. What the characters feel, I feel; what they see, I see. The smell of a fresh book, a book untouched and unread, a book that is new and mysterious, can only be rivaled by the smell of an old book, one that is familiar. When I do read such a book, it doesn't feel like I am reading it again, it feels as if I am merely revisiting the world that I have already known, the world that I left some time ago, but could never forget. A book, no-matter how old or new, will always promise to whisk you away in a maelostrom of words and feelings, embroil you in a sea of experiences and papery magic. When I open a book, I feel that I shouldnt close it until it is finished. It is always "five more minutes" or "just one more page". I know that this happens, I know that stories can grip you, whether they are adventures, fantasies, fiction or non-fiction. They find purchase on your mind, blinding you from all else, yet making you see more than the words on the page. It could be described as magic, albeit a magic formed of ink and paper. Perhaps, as the trilogy of Inkheart sugests, the book is only a door- a door to another world of infinite possibilities, where the edges of the map are not confined to the stretch of the story...

It is strange to think all this, and then to realize the truth. The truth is that whilst the story of a book is written, fixed in reality, the world we see in them is not real; is created by the complex maze of our thoughts. The ideas in the book could not exist if someone had not thought of them, and the only way someone could have thought of them would be if they had the imagination to create a whole new concept, such as that of magic. Our minds feed on these things, these concepts and ideas, adding them to our minds, altering the ways we do things to incorporate everything. I do not believe anyone could honestly say that they have not been affected in some way by something that someone else has written, or even said. For that is the beauty of speech and writing. They can change the way we think.