My Love Affair With Books

It's almost as if I hear them whispering. 

"Look inside. It will change your life."

Of course I don't really hear the books whispering, but it's how I feel when I'm inside a library or a book store.

My sense of awareness is heightened, as if something new is about to be discovered. Endless possibilities.

Not many things can excite me as much as the possibility of a thrilling book. I've pretty much been this way since I was four.

I still remember the perfume my mom wore while I was reading the Nancy Drew series. The memory is that much a part of me. To this day when I smell Estée Lauder's Private Collection, childhood happiness washes over me.

Some people don't get it. Those who don't read not only don't get it, but also think it sounds a bit strange. But those who love books know exactly what I'm talking about.

How can anyone get so much pleasure from not experiencing something, but reading about it? That's what non- readers might ask. And it's a valid question.

But I would argue that with the right imagination and the right book, you actually are experiencing it.

One of the things that has always made me nervous about life is that there simply isn't time to do all of the things I want to do. I can't bear the thought that I might never get to be a detective, or own a bookshop, or be a writer in a flat in New York, or fall in love in Italy. 

But I will get to do all of these things with a book and an imagination.

If we weren't experiencing it as if it really were happening, books wouldn't have the power to make us laugh out loud, or cry, or bite our fingernails in anticipation.

And I feel confident in saying that I know myself so much better because I read. You know that moment when you are reading and you come to *that* sentence. A sentence that resonates so deep within you that you feel a deep connection with the writer whom you don't even know. You suddenly feel implicitly understood, validated, like you are not alone and apparently have never been alone in your feelings.

I dare say books develop who you are. They slowly, over time, help you see truths about yourself and others that shape who you are and how your react to certain situations. They help you become the more authentic "you" that you were always meant to be.

One of my biggest hopes is that I pass on my love of reading to my children. Because I truly believe that is one of the best gifts that can be given.

And I don't really believe there are non-readers. There are really just undiscovered readers who haven't found the right book.

There is a reason that when I'm asked if I could have one item on a deserted island, the answer has always been and always will be a book. Because with a book I wouldn't be stranded. I would get to go everywhere.