The joy of reading

I have just finished reading a classic literature called Jane Eyre. This is my first time ever reading classic literature (if you exclude some of the classic children’s stories) and I am very happy about it. I have never been an avid reader when I was a kid, I think…. I was fond of writing but never holding a book and reading it still for hours. But eventually with a surrounding of books in my house, I guess I must have developed a late love for reading.

I think my first few books were R.L Stine’s Fear Street sagas. I don’t know why I even picked up horror as a genre for me to start with because I am absolutely not fond of horror or anything in the lines of scary and unnerving. I think I eventually grew out of the Fear Street books and ventured on to some teenage vampire love story. Don’t be mistaken, it definitely was not Twilight! Yes, teenage vampire love stories already existed before them! I cant remember the title of the book but I think there is a sequel to it, which I cant remember if I did got to read it or not. Anyway, from there, I just chose some random books that had interesting titles or cover art. I was 14 back then, so I frequented the Teenage novel aisle.

I must let you all know that book stores back in my time were kinda rare to me. So if I do visit a big enough book store that sells mainly English reading material, it was like a supermarket challenge for me. I had to go through every aisle as quick as possible and find whatever I might like and get it before it’s time to go home. I had to make the right choice too because a book would cost RM35 and above and that was so expensive! If I were to buy a book, it has to be the ONE, the chosen ONE! One day at Borders, I was dashing to the Fiction aisle, and found Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens. At that time I was really really really into Muse and I was listening to their Absolution album. So a book about the Apocalypse interested me and the fact that it was a humourous book (a satire) made me purchased the book. I really loved the story and from there I decided to follow Terry Pratchett’s books and I still like them now.

Then came the convenience of iBooks to me and I realize that the free downloads available were classic literature. I have seen a trailer of the Jane Eyre film and since I couldn’t watch it, might as well read the book then! And I really felt so immersed in the story. I am not a fan of full on long and descriptive sentences that can go on a page or two just describing a scenery but I think I have gotten a bit used to it. I think without those sentences, it would be less of an ‘imaginative experience’ for the readers to have. I thoroughly enjoyed the book because I felt what the characters felt. Every joy and sorrow the characters went through, I could feel them. More often than not, I would loudly exclaim in my room “WHY must you do this Jane?? Gosh!! ” after reading the part of her running away from Thornfield (seriously, why??) then only I realized I’ve gotten too excited about the story, hehehe…. And when she gets a happy ending, I would clap for her fortune, as if I was her friend congratulating her. When I reached the last pages of the book, it kinda saddens me that I have to part with ‘a friend’ that has brought me excitement and drama all the while. Really it does! I just wished the book had never ended and would continue on the life of Jane Eyre!

But unfortunately stories must come to an end and the journey that I have went on with the hero/heroine of the book is over. It may be nice to feel the paper pages as you turn them when you dutifully finished a page and it does feel a tiny bit triumphant as you sign your name and date at the back of the cover page but to be able to experience the emotional ups and downs of the story is really the true joy of reading! :)