My mother cannot read the same book twice. She just can't do it. She has made exceptions for franchises like Twilight and Hungry Games, but only as a refresher before she goes and sees the movies. She is constantly looking for new material to entertain her, new characters to meet and new plot lines to follow. I, on the other hand, can't put a good book down.
The first time that I read "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell was in sixth grade. It's 1,024 pages long and I finished it in a weekend. Since then, I've consistently read it again once or twice every year. Sometimes, when I'm having a bad day or am feeling entirely uninspired in my own writing, I'll flip to the part where Rhett steals a horse for Scarlett, or where Frank Kennedy falls in love with a girl dressed in drapes as if that's where I'd left off, and read on from there.
I'm not a fiction writer. I write fiction, sometimes, but it's not how I identify. I am, however, a fiction reader. I love analyzing the same plot line over and over again; I love crying when my favorite character dies or losses love all over again. I enjoy it just as much as I enjoy finding new literature to read.
I think, in part, it's because I understand how much a writer has to go through to create something like this. To write a novel, or even a poem or a short story, a writer has to know their characters fully. We don't usually make things up as we go along. We usually plan things out, we think about who our characters are; we think about how and why these things are happening to them. To a writer, their characters are real people. So to me, when I read about them, these characters are real people too.
The best part of writing is that it encapsulates humanity. I think that I read the same novels again and again because I can relate to them, even if the story does take place in Georgia during the Civil War or in a constant loop of reincarnation. I see myself in the characters and in the lessons they learn. I want to see their triumphs, to laugh at the funny things that happen in their lives and even to relive their heartbreak. Novels remind me that everything ends, but also that everything can begin again. It's kind of hopeful. And so, I can't ever really move on from a story that truly touches me.
Do you have any novels like that?
-Savannah Thanscheidt, Web Editor