Submitted by MorriganJade t3_zbf7j5 in books
I’ve loved reading since I can remember and ever since I could read on my own when I was six I've been reading constantly, every kind of both children's and adults' novels and poetry. Other than older adults, I mostly didn't know anyone else who loved reading or read at all until about age fourteen, so I heard a lot of negative misconceptions about it from people, for example that books would be like friends and instead of friends, that books would take away from real life experiences (when really they add to it with meaning and extra memories and associations about everything), or (from my parents) that books could be a bad influence and raise me instead of them. I strongly disagreed with all of this as it was clear to me that it wasn't true and it was nothing like that. Reading books was something I loved doing but they weren't like people and I felt stronlgly that when something was missing from people or my life, books didn't at all make up for it and only made me long for it more. I was quite defensive about it but didn't at all feel that I was being raised by books, and as a child I cared so little who the author was that I mostly didn't even read their name and read books without realising they were by the same author, so I certainly didn't imagine the person on the other side, someone who might mean well towards me, the reader, and in any case cares about our relationship as reader and writer in some way.
As an adult I see things differtly and I realise that while I was right that books aren't like people, I was raised by books in ways that were fundamental to my life, that books saved me and gave me what I needed all my life. And I also realise that many books had authors that were trying to help, and to share themselves and teach whatever we can learn from this powerful and profound form of communication with one another. I've been getting into author's interviews, like Naomi Novik, Ryka Aoki, Martha Wells, Becky Chambers and others and I can feel that they are there for me with what they're doing and their books, and that they care.
Books allowed me to always understand who I am and what I want. They gave me the words for what I was feeling, a concept of what was right and wrong and a sense of meaning even at times when people around me wanted to keep that information from me, gaslighted me and tried to break my spirit. Books are the reason that I never did break and I held on to my truth, the way I knew something was wrong when it was, the way my world was bigger than the limits of the place I was in, the way I was prepared and the way I knew I deserved a voice and wasn't the only one. They gave me so many possibilities and taught me so much that I knew what was missing and where I was going. So I do believe books had a big part in raising me and I'm so grateful for that.
Do you feel books had a part in raising you?
Edit: Thanks so much for the gold! :D