Book Hangover: When The Words Stop

It's not easy to read a book. A lot of times, people don't understand how the reader can become so attached to words on a paper, I mean, it's not like they're real people (at least in fictional books). This is something a lot of people say for books and even show or movie characters, "why are you so upset, they're not even real. Why are you so happy, they're just words."And it's hard to explain how these "words" can mean so much to them, but it's like what they said in the video: for a moment you become a part of something bigger than yourself, you join an uprising, you save the world, solve a murder. A book lets you do that. A book is a journey.

If you aren't a reader or have a good imagination, then the words of a book are just words. But if you try, just try, to see them as more than just words - to build the world in your mind and put a face to the characters, those words become so much more.

"Immature people falling in love destroy each other’s freedom, create a bondage, make a prison. Mature persons in love help each other to be free; they help each other to destroy all sorts of bondages. And when love flows with freedom there is beauty. When love flows with dependence there is ugliness.

A mature person does not fall in love, he or she rises in love. Only immature people fall; they stumble and fall down in love. Somehow they were managing and standing. Now they cannot manage and they cannot stand. They were always ready to fall on the ground and to creep. They don’t have the backbone, the spine; they don’t have the integrity to stand alone.

A mature person has the integrity to stand alone. And when a mature person gives love, he or she gives without any strings attached to it. When two mature persons are in love, one of the great paradoxes of life happens, one of the most beautiful phenomena: they are together and yet tremendously alone. They are together so much that they are almost one. Two mature persons in love help each other to become more free. There is no politics involved, no diplomacy, no effort to dominate. Only freedom and love."

Osho

You want to start reading but don't know what to read

Fear not, everyone has this problem. I got you.

I'm gonna give you some books I think would really get you hooked on reading so don't say I didn't warn you when you're up at 2 in the morning, dying to find out what happens next.

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

• I would recommend this to everyone. Seriously, if the first sentence of Chapter 1 doesn't grab your attention, then I am very curious as to what kind of life you have. And don't worry, this book is not as heavy as the title suggests, trust me. I don't want to give anything away for this book - it's a gem.
• Female protagonist that kicks butt and a plot that keeps you on your toes
• Action? Yes
• Romance? Yes
• Suspense? Yes
• Crazy government cover up? Yes
• Ragtag bunch on the run? Yes
• Should I read this? Yessss

Legend by Marie Lu

• This is a trilogy that was actually made with a movie contract so there will be films in the future. The action scenes in this book are some of the best I've ever read and I know you're thinking, how can a book have action scenes? This book just does it right and it's a lot more intense than films because you get to read the detail and thought of every move. If you want an adrenaline, action-packed book, then this is the one for you. 
• The book follows two characters, June who is in a elite military family and Day who is an outlaw, whose paths cross when June is assigned to track Day. Through her mission, she finds strange things that don't match up with what her superiors are telling her and Day's true identity and reasons slowly make June question her mission.
• Dual point of views from June, female protagonist, and Day, male protagonist 
• There is romance but it is very well balanced with the action, plot, and revelations
• Three books all completed
• Really skilled main characters that can do some serious damage both with their wit and their bodies

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

• This is also a trilogy that is currently only on book two. Its about aliens. I know, I know. Aliens is kind of a weird subject for a lot of people because they think of grey slimy blobs that kill everything. This is not like that. The alien invasion came in waves, thus the title of the book, and they actually invaded using tiny biological means which in turn allowed them to take over the bodies of humans, so no gross blobs here - just some creepy, minuscule alien probing. 
• We follow Cassie, a girl trying to get to her brother who got separated from her during the mass panic and evacuations. She has a super entertaining voice and is very relatable because she reacts to the whole alien-apocalypse much like one of us would. 
• Wise-cracks and jokes will keep you laughing 
• A very realistic world and character reaction to an alien-apocalypse
• Again, super capable protagonist that can fend for herself

These are some books that I think would really get you interested in reading because they have great characters and crazy plots. 

How I started reading

Like most kids, I wasn't much of a reader. I only read when absolutely necessary and that was when there was an assigned book report I had to do in elementary or middle school before googling summaries was a thing. Even then, I'd only fully read two books, Esperanza Rising and The City Of Embers. The only book I had ever read for fun was The Series of Unfortunate Events which I have yet to finish btw. So yeah, not much reading done in my younger years. I would have never thought I'd be a "reader" but 2 years and 250+ books later, here I am making a blog for books.

So what started my immense thirst for books?

The Hunger Games. Yes, the trilogy that is making big bucks on shelves and movie screens. There was a lot of hype for The Hunger Games and after I watched the movie I was surprised that it ended without them doing much but waving to a crowd. So I was like, "What the- all this hype and it just ends like that? There's no way the first book ends like that." So I read the book thinking that I was missing something, but, alas, the first movie did, indeed, end in the same place the first book did so I was thinking, "I did not read that whole book to end where I started," so I read the next book and it was so intense that I read the third and I was just blown away that books could have so much detail and movies left out a lot of it because they couldn't accommodate them in all in a 2hr time-frame. It got me thinking what other hyped-up books were about and what details were I missing from the book-to-film movies that I thought I knew all about.

That curiosity led me to read Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Twilight Saga (which btw was pretty good, ok.), Harry Potter, Divergent, and just a massive amount of books I had no idea I was capable of reading. It's like I was addicted to this new drug and had all this supply. Seriously, I was going through one book a day and I went on like that for almost 4 months. From the beginning of senior year in high school 2012, to the end of 2012 I had read 104 books like I was so amazed by my progress that I kept track of how many books I read. It was insane. I went from not reading squat to reading all of Harry Potter within a week and then some.

I don't think that I'm superior for reading and I hope I don't come off as trying to boast, it's just that I'm so genuinely glad that I've developed a love and understanding to reading that most people do not. I tell you, reading is one of the most entertaining things in the world. I know that might sound lame but it really is. I can't describe it well, but books are just so... colorful. You meet people in them you never would meet in real life like assassins and dukes to aliens and superheros. You travel through time and to places that are impossible to travel to. You become a world builder and use descriptions to create a whole universe in your head that is at your disposal. Characters, words on paper, become near and dear to you because you do not fall for their looks and appearances, you make those yourself actually, but you fall for their wit, ideas, beliefs, their souls. In the words of J.K. Rowling, "If you don't like to read, you haven't found the right book." and if you do not know the joys and wonders of reading, then I hope that one day you find the right book.