Let’s go Booking Through Thursday!

This week’s question: Since “Inspiration” is (or should be) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

I absolutely love, love, love picking up a book, reading through the first few pages to decide who it is I’m going to go on an exciting journey with, discovering which places I’ll visit, cultures I’ll experience and ideas to which I’ll be exposed. Reading takes you places — it lets us visit Regency England, the streets of Mumbai or a cafe in Seattle. Will I ever make it to some of these places? Sure. Someday. But I’ll never walk through a garden with Jane Austen, stare out over Dickens’ London or come ashore with the first few intrepid travellers to arrive on the shores of America. But through books, I’m there with them.

And I read to relax. I read to escape. I don’t read non-fiction, true crime or too many history books — I don’t want to dwell on the negativity of the past, or learn about the horrors of the present. I love falling in love as my characters do, going through their trials with them and cheering them on as they emerge from the other side.

Reading teaches us about ourselves — what we value, where we’re going, what it is we may be meant to do with our lives. My fiction reminds me of a world larger, grander and more explosive beyond just me — it teaches me and makes me a part of something more important than myself. I read to clue in to that world and, as I’ve gotten more involved in the book blogging community, meeting new people who share my similar interests!

Honestly, the novels I read make me feel like I’m a part of something magnificent. And there’s no replacement for that!