Sunday, August 16, 2009

Do other people not read this way?

I got looked at oddly this week, which yes, that's par-for-the-course in my life, but it was the sort of odd look that gets me thinking.
So I'd like to put this out there and find out if I'm really that much of a freak. Feel free to comment with "FREAK!" I promise I won't mind.

When I read a book, I am in that world. I am totally absorbed in it, it is all around me, I live that book. If I'm in the middle of a good book and have to put it down to go to work, make dinner, go out to eat, I CANNOT get that book out of my head.
I literally see things differently, the elements of the book keep creeping into my reality. I'm not hallucinating or anything, but things in my life tie into the text.
This doesn't go away until I finish that book. With Harry Potter, it lasted for years because the story wasn't finished (plus, what a fun world to live in!)
I don't know if it's just something I picked up off the autistic spectrum of fun little disorders that was laid out like a buffet before my family. Or perhaps I've just got a knack for suspension of reality. It could also be completely normal, you tell me. Please. I'd like to know.
All I really know right now is I love it and I hate it. I love being able to smear myself with the ink of some other world and live it. I hate that sometimes I have to war with myself to get my head back in reality, it is emotionally painful and... well people look at me oddly.
So, if I start talking about Chinese legends or Greeco/Roman Mythology around you, please forgive me, I'm buried in my own ink, breathing it, drinking it, dreaming of it, and having a glorious time.

5 comments:

Aaron and crystal said...

FREAK :)

Okay so if you are a freak then I am in line right behind you . When I read a book I can't pull my heasd out of that world. I thinl about it ALL the time while I am reading it. I think that is on of the reason I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read. It gives me a means of escape from my world when I need it or even when I don't :)

So now we o=know why freak of a feather flock together :)
Love ya babe...

Bobbi said...

I am the same way too!
I think it is the non-readers that are the freaks. We are the normal ones.

JerieH said...

Ummm, I am not sure if this helps, being you sister and all, but to me a book isn't really worth reading unless it sucks you in like that.

OffJumpsJack said...

That's nothing.

I still remember leaving Jurassic Park II after dark and jumping at every leafy tree hiding around a corner or in the dark along the road. They all looked amazingly like the head of the T-Rex lunging toward us in the car.

That was a stressful drive home and my wife and children didn't help.

A book or movie isn't good unless you can visualize what the write describes.

Anna said...

I know I'm really late on this. But I don't think you're a freak, I think a good imagination is an excellent thing. I used to be more like that. But because of the hate aspects of it you mentioned, kind of broke myself of it. The less time I'm spending literally in the ink of it, the less it impacts me in reality. And I don't have as much time to read now a days