Daily Diary discussion

How much of the worlds we enter when we read a book become a part of you after you finish the book? Any books that have struck you in this way? I remember Walker Percy's the Moviegoer had this effect on me..I still think of this book when watching a movie. Do people read in order to enter this world or to mix the world of the book with their own real world later?

I've heard of something like this. Except it was more.. you read books to fill a void in your life.

I guess that could be true too--books fill up something missing in our life.

I'm not sure how to describe it. I mean, sometimes I read to fill a void in my life. Sometimes, I fall so in love with the character or the setting that I incorporate some mannerisms or rituals into my own life. Other times I've walked away feeling what the character was feeling (I remember reading Shopaholic and Becky got broken up with and I felt broken up with and then my boyfriend really did break up with me).

It just depends on how far, how close, I psychologically allow myself to enter the text.

It's interesting how different texts affect us in various ways. A really good movie or book does live on with us beyond the experience of reading/watching I guess.

And there was a quote in You've Got Mail about books you read as a kid shaping you into who you will be as an adult.

I just find books help me to escape and relax. My family notices my irratablilities when I haven't had my reading time.

But sometimes I think the world of books becomes our world in a way just like we get good ideas from books.

Debra wrote: "I guess books were escapism for me when I was younger. I could be anything, go anywhere, do anything in a book. It shut out the real world. I'm a much happier person in my older years. I truly e..."

Exactly. That's part of why I love Harry Potter so much. I can pick up one of those books, and completely forget about everything else. Which might be bad. But, I'm a teenager. And its good to escape the "real" world every once and a while.

Maybe the pleasure is another window to the world. I am still escaping the stresses in my life and I never watch tv because of it. When I do watch I find myself watching more reality tv. The only show I record is House, because it's so funny-being in the medical field it's really enjoyable. I definatly enjoy the friends and worlds I visit when I read.

I think reading might very well be an escapism thing for me. And also a chance to be the things I want to be--brave, strong, madly in love (or madly loved by someone). There's another quote from You've Got Mail about this...I couldn't find it exactly, but it's like she finds herself remembering things in books when something happens to her, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I love that movie. I just can't get enough of it!

A few years after I graduated from the Naval Academy, I read A Sense of Honor by James Webb which is set at the Academy. His descriptions of the physical place as well as the environment were so good that for the couple of days that I read the book and several days afterward I felt like I was back at school.

I don't read specifically for the purpose of being transported to another place and/or time, but when I am that book gets five stars. Two books that have done that for me in the past several years are The Brothers K and The River Why, both by David James Duncan.

I have always read to escape the real world. I can remember reading in school and it's like all noise and movement stops while I'm reading the story; it's almost like a blackout type of thing.

I think what I love most about books is that I can live vicariously through different characters in different time periods or different places in the world.

I can read a story about mountaineering and I'm there on the mountain with the climber; I can read about a pioneer and I'm immediately transported to that century without computers, cell phones, and microwaves. I can read about Atticus Finch and wish I had his character; or read about Hannibal Lecter and thank God I'm not him. Books are just amazing that way.

Cheryl wrote: "I just find books help me to escape and relax. My family notices my irratablilities when I haven't had my reading time. "

I am just like that.

Reading is an escape but not one I need to retain when the book is done. Then it is time to move on...

I read to learn about experiences/places/times I haven't had/been/experienced or to see how a place/time/experience I'm familiar with is seen differently by someone who was there or writes about it.
the books that really speak to me do the opposite of escapism - they help me look at reality in a new or differnt way
I just finished Dark Star Safari by Theroux and it felt like I was along with him and learned about different parts/aspects of Africa that I could never have learned even if I went on the same trip because of his prior living experience there 30-40 yrs ago