I've come to the conclusion that in every book I'll ever read, there is more of me to be found.
A piece is waiting to be unveiled, discovered, understood.
A word wants to join my vocabulary.
A character longs to offer me emotions I've never felt quite this way before.
The story invites me to live through an experience, live in a city, explore a world or an imagination or a worldview that I wouldn't have otherwise known.
Principles are lining up, in bulleted points, to guide my decisions.
Quotes are waiting to leap off the pages, onto a notecard or the lines of my journal or a note to a friend.
These opportunities are too rich to pass up.
It's all very selfish, really. I just want to know myself better, this girl who follows me everywhere I go.
She's a work in process, with a little more in the next book.
I LOVE this one, Tricia! I've never thought of it just this way before, but I agree with you. I can even tell who I was reading most in high school and my young twenties by how spongelike I absorbed a little *too* much of the characters and tried on elements the way others assume more traditional personas like "jock" or "drama person". And I think we read your blog for the same reason, sometimes. You blaze a trail of self-awareness and in your wake we can say, ah-HA! THAT is how I might have said it, or THAT is a conclusion I wish I would've drawn. These books and blogs are like mirrors and keys--reflecting and leading us to places previously unnoticed or locked.