A true Bookworm

Don't you just the love the term Bookworm? It implies somebody who is always seen with their nose in a book. As if that's a bad thing??? When I was a freshman in college I took a reading test for a class. As the teacher was going over the scores she never mentioned mine. So I asked what mine meant and as she told me that I had the reading intelligence of a 2nd year doctorate student. Really? Cool.

So obviously I fit the "bookworm" profile because I do love to read. And I really can't stress to younger generations enough how important that is. It doesn't matter what you read. I love a good trashy romance just as much as the next woman (especially the ones set in the middle ages because I love trying to sound out the abbreviated words) but that doesn't mean I don't have other interests. Personally I have read the entire Harry Potter series about 12 times. I'm not even a Harry Potter geek. The books are very well written and that's why I love them. I've also really gotten into Rick Riordan lately who to those of you don't know is the author of the Percy Jackson series. He also has two new series he has started that I'm very into: The Kane Chronicles and a spin off of the Percy Jackson Series: The Heroes of Olympus. He has only released the first of these so far but its just enough to tempt you and a new book should be out in May (yay!)

The author I really love the most however is Stephen King. He is just an amazing writer and I've loved his work ever since I read the Tommyknockers. The thing I really love about Stephen King is that he puts little addendum's in the back of his books. Most notably his short stories. Or sometimes there is a letter in the beginning. It makes you really feel like you are talking to him about his work. I just finished reading "Just After Sunset" which is a book of short stories published in 2008. King says that obviously the most common question he is asked is where does he get ideas for his stories? Certainly someone who writes the things he does can't just make them all up. And he doesn't. He gets his ideas from events or everyday activities or dreams. His comment about one of his stories titled "A Very Tight Place" says that he shows us, the readers, his fears by the situations he puts some of his characters into. And that got me to thinking (even though I should be sleeping) about what makes us read the things we do? Why is it that I, someone who screams when the toast pops out of the toaster, reads pretty damn scary books at night when I know that a nightmare is a good probability from it? The other books are easy: Romances-I mean who doesn't love a good love story?; Mysteries-Life is a mystery!; Fantasy-I really truly and honestly believe that we are not alone, not just in this universe but on this very planet. (why would there be so many stories about vamps, witches, werewolves, fairies, etc if they weren't true????)

I think that the reason I love Mr. King so much is the fact that he always shocks me. From his profanity( the man loves the f* word) to his situations. I mean life is scary enough right?? From bills to stresses of everyday life shouldn't that be enough? But that's the problem. Sometimes it is too much and its nice to have some perspective. Gross, you have to use the porta potty at the fair. Well you could end up trapped in it for over 24 hours with excrement sitting around you and have to fight your way out of the bottom. See? Perspective.

However I can't claim that this is a new passion of mine. As a child I was more interested in the Goosebumps series than the Babysitter's Club. (though Nancy Drew gave R. L. Stine a run for his money) So what is it that makes us read the things we do? As a sociology major we like to look at group think but I personally think that the individual themselves is the more important thing. So I, who am easily scared by someone popping around a corner, reads the most horrible things imaginable. Does that mean I secretly love this kind of horror? Well of course I do. King's new book "Full Dark No Stars" had a story about a woman who was raped in it. And she ends up killing them for it after they left her for dead. Personally I think in a perfect world she could have cut pieces off little by little but in the book she just shot them, which helps her get away with the crime.

Life is not always rainbows and sunshine. Sometimes you really have to get through being left in a drainage ditch for dead before you can realize that you have the strength to overcome anything.