by Michelle BravoThere have been many books over the course of my life that I have read, but there are only a select few that have left their mark in my life. As a child I grew a love for reading when I realized how powerful my imagination could be through the interpretation of written words. To me, it was as entertaining as watching TV. From a young age, I never had much luck with developing a social life so books were my saving grace and kept me satisfied. My love for books is so grand that I would sacrifice many hours of sleep just to finish them. I was about 10 years old when my fourth grade elementary school teacher read Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief to my class. This book awakened my appreciation for Greek mythology and its ancient culture. Demigod Percy Jackson and his half-blood friends introduced me to the world of Olympus as well as Ancient Greek gods. The way that Riordan used the lore to his advantage in creating his own storyline fascinated me. This book was the epitome of fun in my eyes, Percy was such a relatable character that I found myself immersed in his world. This book was a definite milestone in my bookshelf and still holds a place in it till this day. The Lightning Thief was the first book I could not put down no matter what, the fact that it was a series made it all the better. I spent sleepless nights trying to finish this series because I had to know what would happen next. My appreciation for literature only transpired because of Percy Jackson and his missions to save Olympus. James Patterson’s Angel Experiment was one of those books one can get obsessed with because of how action packed it is. Collectively, it was a series of 8 books called The Complete Maximum Ride Series. The series was consistently well written and interesting all the way through. The reason this book changed my life was because I got to meet the mastermind behind the words. When given the opportunity to go meet James Patterson himself at his newest book release and signing, my 14 year old self almost cried from excitement. I brought with me every book I had purchased that he had written and carried them up to the table where he was seated at. He signed all 15 of them and I have kept each one in mint condition since then. He was quite impressed by how dedicated I was to his work. This book made me realize that the sci-fi genre was not off limits for me. It was a great escape from reality, a series full of adventure and action, some underlying romance and the fact that the main character was a heroin made it all the better. The most recent book to impact my life out of the three is Sherwin B. Nuland’s How We Die. This book was introduced to me during a slight academic transition in my life. It was an assigned reading in one of my classes from my first semester at a new college. Nuland’s words made me realize how any one of us could die at any moment. How every second we are alive we get closer to our inevitable death. There is no changing the fact that it will eventually happen, but this book took the fear out of death by explaining its process. Using medical terminology and concise language I realized that there is more than one way I could die, and contemplating death is pointless. This book gave me the push I needed to try to make the most out of my life, because it made me realize just how fragile and taken for granted one’s health could be. Wandering aimlessly and simply existing is not going to get you the life you desire. It’s a blessing to be healthy and able bodied, only you can control what you can accomplish during your lifetime.
Literature is something I hope never dies. But with entertainment options like TV, movies and Netflix less and less people are reading. This summer many people would comment on a book in my hand by saying, “Why are you reading? It’s summer” because they view reading as something one does solely for a grade in a class. The idea that a person could read for pleasure is no longer as popular as it once was. I hope at least one of the books I mentioned above will be a gateway to reading for pleasure in someone’s life. I’ve read many books over the course of my lifetime and without them I can’t even imagine the kind of person I would have turned out to be. With my nose always stuck between pages I never got into any trouble, it even inspired my love for writing. If I hadn’t picked up that first book I probably wouldn’t have come out of my shell and try my hand at trying to put words together myself; I wouldn’t be writing for an anthropology magazine. That’s how reading changed my life, it put me on a different path. Now, at the end of a long day all I seek is my bed, a good book and a literary world to escape to.
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