Okay, so I don't want to make this all big and personal and all about me, me, me, but I want to get a point across. And I'm sure I'm not the only person who's dealt with this.There will be those people who just aren't into books. I get that because my sister, my twin, absolutely hates them and only very rarely will she ever pick one up. And the occasion is even rarer if she actually finishes it. I don't take it personally, though, and I don't expect people to go jumping over boulders and such just to read a book. If you do, great. But, I don't want to or mean to force people into reading it. That's up for them to decide.
But then there are those people who throw the fact that you actually read for fun in your face. Earlier this year, I was pretty much verbally assaulted by this one boy. He thought reading was lame and said a whole bunch of things to offend me. At the time, I did take it personally and was completely red with anger. How could he say such a thing to me? I never forced him into reading anything he didn't want to. I never rubbed it in his face that I read a whole lot for fun. It just didn't make sense to me how he could be so cruel to me. What did I ever do to him?
But, I realized that I was wrong for thinking that way. There really was no reason for me to be offended by his words. I guess in a way that this was a type of bullying, but why would it matter to me? I live my own world and I do whatever I please to because that's what I love to do. And for me, that happens to be reading. I love to read.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that what people say shouldn't effect what you do. I don't know if this has happened to other people out there in the book-bloggingsphere, but this has been bothering me for a while. People shouldn't have to be self-conscious about what they do. Since I like reading, I'll read all the books I want and nobody has a say in it. My love for books is stronger than the influence of the people around me. I've got a few of my friends and my blogging buddies on Twitter to gush about books with. And that's all the encouragement I need to read some more.
Read on!
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Wow, people like that are so hard to deal with. Why does he care if you read? You're not hurting anyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Read what you love and don't be ashamed of it. And there are a whole lot of people wandering around the Internet who love to read and gush about books.
As Amanda Palmer says: "Haters exit stage right, pursued by a bear."
PS: I saw your blog on The Enchanted Writer's RAOK post, so I thought I'd come by and say hi. :)
Millie, I am so sorry to hear about what happened with that bully. I just want to say that what he did was wrong. If someone did that to me I'd be very upset too. The thing is, reading is awesome, and you should never ever feel bad for loving to read. Don't let anyone stop you from doing what you love!
ReplyDeleteAndrea