music: owen- one of these days
One of the things I’m most thankful for, in my relocation in a strange land, is the rekindling of my relationship with my first love, books. For four years i spent hour after hour pouring through book after book, reading upwards of 5 books a week for classes (the perils of an english literature student) but only those books I was told to read, nothing of my own preference. Reading became a chore, a job, a necessity, but not a necessity like breathing or water, but one that you know you have to do but don’t really want to, like exercising and eating vegetables. I was not longer reading for the love of reading, or even reading things i loved, but reading because i had to, because my professors told me to. After reading thousands and thousands of pages during the week, my summers were no longer spent reading, like i did when i was young- going to the library with stacks and stacks of books, my heart exploding with excitement to pour over each and every one of them as quickly as i could, anxious to fill my brain with wonderful words and stories and move on to the next. No, that stopped.
When i moved here, i started to crave the english word. And thus i re-started my love affair with books. Its a completely different experience, reading things you want to read, things you’ve always wanted to read but never had the time to. I can’t get enough of books. I spend my entire lunch hour pent up in my classroom with the door closed mindlessly munching on my lunch and completely engrossed in whatever book is my boyfriend for the week. I spend my free time between classes hiding my novels underneath textbooks like kids did with their comic books inside textbooks.
I just finished pride and prejudice. Me, a literature major, has never ever read jane austen. As a lover of classic literature i absolutely ate it up. I have made a vow to myself to read all of austen’s work. I’ve developed an obsession with coupland and hornby and i even read harry potter for the first time. I am presently reading kerouac’s on the road, which, again, shockingly i’ve never read. For someone who spent her entire academic career reading, i’m not well read at all. So one of the many reasons i’m thankful for my experience in japan, here’s another one. I’m very greatful for this opportunity to rekindle one of the most important relationships ive ever had in my life. That of myself and literature.
