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What started out as a pastime soon turned into a hobby that turned into a passion until it eventually became a necessity. Reading is a need so beautiful that I feel I must write about it every day.

Wednesday 22 February 2012

You're as good as the books you read!

Tell me you read Nicholas Sparks, Sidney Sheldon or Nora Roberts and I may not want to speak to you again. Tell me you worship the likes of Marquez, Chekov and Joyce and I will respect you forever. For sworn bibliophiles around the world, books can be major deal breakers (or makers).

The books we love often reflect all that we believe in; all that we think is beautiful in the world. It may have a character you closely relate to or a plot that reads like your own life. So the kind of books we read say a lot about us.

Accuse me of narrow mindedness but when it comes to knowing people, I judge them by their taste in literature. Going into someone's house and seeing a wall plastered with books excite me, perusing the titles on somebody's shelves is like opening a window on their psyche.

I am aware of the fact that an individual is more than the sum of his bookshelf but I also believe that books are an extension of one's self and so for me a person is as good the books he reads. 

Beg to differ?


P.S. My apologies to the people who love Sparks, Roberts and Sheldon but seriously, you need to give Wilde, Dostoevsky and Marquez a shot.

7 comments:

  1. Yeah I do. One of my bestes friends hate's reading and the other one hates one of my favorites.

    Peolpe are more than what they read, just like they are more than the colour of their skin or choice in music. There's always more.

    Besides the people who hate or read different books then me. That probably makes the relationship fun.

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  2. First - I LOVE your library :) I have always said if the NYPL would just let me live inside their building I would be quiet, respectful, and even clean for them at night if they need me to. My mother is a career librarian and books are my life. I was taken away by Austen and Wilde a long time ago and lost my soul along the way to Chekov and Poe. I do have to say, my house and world is full of books. But thre will always be a palce for a Judy Blume, who opened the doors to some controversial subjects a long time ago and forged a path. And alhough I do not like Nora Roberts - I admire Eve Dallas - her strength and abiities and no nonsense when it comes to loyalty, trust and being the female that she wants to be. Nora writes as J.D. Robb for those, and although 'commercial' therre is a female in those books who speaks volumes. So...I suppose I would be a dealbreaker LOL.

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  3. I have to admit I didn't know Nora Roberts wrote under the pseudonym of J.D.Robb. I would never call a book trashy but in case of the novel i read by her- Conspiracy in death, I think that is the only suitable term to define it. No wonder i hated it SO much. So yeah, major deal breaker for me too :) I'm in love with Poe as well. Just wondering if you've read Annabel lee? It's one of the most soul stirring work of poetry I've read.

    P.S. I know exactly how you feel about living in a library. I wish I was a librarian too. Working with books for a living,who wouldn't want that!

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  4. I agree, but I disagree. I do love perusing other people's bookshelves -- just like a CD collection, it is a window into the soul. Yet, at the same time, I wouldn't judge someone by what they read. We can have some favourites in common, I can like some books that you didn't and vice versa, and we can have amazing discussions based on these differences. My book club has a group of diverse readers and, because of this diversity, we have some really great book debates!

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    1. hey, send me a link to your book club, I'd love to visit it. :)

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  5. I totally understand where your coming from with judging people by the things they read. I'm terrible for screwing up my face in disgust when I hear that someone reads Twilight (apologies to those who love it!) or if someone actually wastes their time reading Z listers autobiographies. But I am guilty of enjoying a bit of Sparks from time to time but not as my everyday reading but a book that I read when I need a bit of fluff to lose myself in. I like some of the classics, and I study them as part of my English lit degree but I do prefer reading fantasy and historical fiction books in my spare time. I enjoy reading what I want to read in my spare time and not what my tutors tell me I have to read.

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    1. I always wanted to study English literature in High School. Sadly, never got around to it. I recently started reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Any thoughts on it? since you said you like historical fiction.

      P.S. I have a similar reaction when people tell me they read twilight.

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