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Reading Is Cool Too Going to John Green's event for The Fault in our Stars really got me thinking. It was such an amazing, surreal experience, being surrounded by so many people who all share the same love of reading. I've never gotten that anywhere else. It was easy to make conversation with just about anyone. The people waiting in line behind us outside, people sitting all around us in the auditorium, people in the signing line. We fan-girled over John Green and gasped over someone that hasn't read The Hunger Games. And while I'll probably never see these people or talk to them again, it was an experience that I will never forget. Being around so many people that you don't have to explain to, people who just get it.

After the event, my family asked all about it. I was totally fangirling, describing conversations and everything, but I knew that they didn't get it. Laughing over my excitement, like oh aren't you such a cute little nerd. My dad even said jokingly, "I've never seen someone so excited about meeting an author. Girls your age are supposed to be like this over rock stars." I showed all of my signed stuff with such enthusiasm, and no one really cared.

If I got say, Tom Brady's autograph or Lil Wayne's, I'd be the shit.

I cannot understand for the life of me why our culture glorifies athletes and celebrities. What do they do? Football players get paid millions of dollars for being able to throw/catch a ball. (Disclaimer: I respect football and think it's a fascinating sport both physically and mentally. I just don't think people should be paid so much to play it.) Reality TV stars are paid so everyone has the luxury of seeing their over-dramatized life on television. I watch shows like Jersey Shore and Keeping up with the Kardashian's and I'm disgusted, because it's like what are those people famous for?

So of course those are the show's that everyone else obsesses over.

And then there are writers. People who are under the radar, famous within there own circle of loyal readers. Authors do something. They put their work out there, and affect their readers. There's purpose within novels. Lessons about humanity. Author's dig deep, using words to discover the roots of society. We write to make sense of the world around us, as well as help other people make sense of it all along the way.

For me, I cannot imagine a world without books. I need them like I need oxygen. The publishing world is such an amazing community, one that I want to be a part of one day. My books are my friends. I've already made so many friends through writing.

I feel like the book world in general is extremely underrated. I look to my favorite authors with so much more admiration than I do celebrities. How different is reading a book than watching TV? Those shows just don't happen on their own. There are brilliant writers behind all of them. My favorite television writer is Shonda Rhimes, the brain behind shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. All TV takes words and makes them visual. People won't read, because reading takes too much effort. They can't just sit down for a few hours and visualize this whole world for them. Instead, they sit in front of a television and let all the imagining be done for them.

So yes. I love books. I love how an entire story is bound between such a small space. I love meeting new characters and learning there stories. Having my heart broken again and again. Falling in love again and again.

I just wish more people could understand that feeling. Or at least try to. Labels: book love, writers 
Writers are so awesome, they work so hard, they worry endlessly about their work, they stay up late writing and editing. Then there's the publishing process which entails a lot of waiting and praying and then the joy of getting published. And after that, no. one. bothers. remembering. their. name! People are like "woah, I read this great book..." and I'm like "Cool! By who!" And they're all like "I don't remember, something or other" and I just want to blow up at them XD.

Seriously, authors don't get enough credit.

January 17, 2012 at 3:24 PM 
I agree with all of this. This post=amazing.

January 18, 2012 at 11:39 AM