The Large World of Words

That's right guys, this week (April 13-19) is National Library Week!

"First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries - school, public, academic and special - participate." (x)

Sometime we read books in-between books. It's generally not the greatest masterpiece that you've ever read or stumbled across, but hey, you can't find anything better and you just need to have any book to read. Let's say you're walking through the bookstore because you just finished the last greatest book/series and you're still trying to survive through that book hangover so your aspirin for it is, well, a new book. So you're walking down the aisles, trying to find a book that will even compete with what you just got done reading, but you just can't find that perfect new story to enjoy. You have one in your basket that sounds okay-not perfect, but something that you could settle on as a consolation prize-but you're still searching for one that sounds perfect to cure that last book hangover. So you settle on that okay book in your basket, buy it, and go home to read it. It helps cure that craving for a book to read sure, but it's still not that perfect new series that you want. It's like being thirsty and you're out of water bottles because you forgot to go to the store. Sure the tap water will quench the thirst for a little bit, but it's not as satisfying or rewarding as that water bottle. I like to call these consolation prize books Limbo books, forever stuck in-between the greats. You need that new book series and within the next couple of days or weeks, you find it. You find that perfect new series to read and you love it. And then you find the new perfect series after that. And another book after that. Until eventually you practically forget that you even read that filler book to begin with. You lose memory of the characters, or the story arc, or even the plot. You barely even remember reading it at all and someone would have to remind you of what the main character's name is. It becomes forgotten-a thing of the past, that poor consolation prize book. The book that was there in that between state of reading and the aspirin to your hangover until you could go party again. The Limbo.

I know I've had my fair share of those. It's sort of fun while you're reading it, but extremely frustrating afterwards when you can't remember a thing you read. It makes me feel slightly less guilty afterwards when I hear that the same book that was my Limbo book was also the same for others. I remember when I finished the second book in the Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick, I still couldn't recall what the main plot even was from the first book nor the second one even though I literally finished it a week ago. I couldn't remember the characters or who was friends with who or what they looked like. It wasn't because I didn't enjoy the books or like the books, I really did, but they were just more kind of there because I needed something to read and it sounded at least kind of decent while I was on the hunt for a new kicking series. When I went on my blog to share about my distress over finishing the books and forgetting practically everything, I got multiple responses saying that they felt the same. That they simply just forgot about it as well. They knew that they read it, but the details just slipped from memory. We all had to remind ourselves of the character's names and who was connected to who and what happened in the end to everyone. Because they all used that series the same as I did, as a Limbo book.

Everybody always talks about their favorite books and how much they love a certain character and a certain plot point. People gush about how much they love a certain scene, how emotional they got at the climax, what their favorite quotes from the book are, etc. etc.

However, something that people don't talk about as much is the stories that they don't love.

Now I'm not talking a little bit of a "Ehh just not the genre for me I guess. The book wasn't all that interesting to me." What I'm talking about is a full on loathing of a book. Like a "If this book was personified into a real person I would punch them in the face" type of deal.

We can easily create a list of our favorite books with only minimal thought. They're the stories that touched our hearts and we picture the characters as real living people when we went on their adventures with them. But not every book we read is good, and that's just a fact of life. We can't go our entire lives expecting that every book we read is good and the probability of it even happening is close to the number of Leo DiCaprio's Oscar awards on his shelf (sorry Leo, maybe next year).

Throughout all the books we have read and loved over the years, there is always at least that one book that we wish to erase from our memory forever. Whether it's because of the poor writing, a bad main character, or just because it isn't your cup of tea, you have the strong need to set every copy of the book on the opposite side of the planet from you. I'm not ashamed of the books I hate and I will gladly list them for you if you asked, just as passionately as if you asked what my favorite books were. My reason for hating each book that I do hate is different for every story and not everybody agrees with my opinion-and that's okay, because it is after all my opinion and it's totally cool if what's on my Loathe list is on your Fave list or vise versa. That's the fun part of opinions and the fun part of the difference between people.

Because of the variances in opinion between people, people shouldn't be afraid to say what books they hate or even just mildly dislike. For instance, I hated To Kill a Mockingbird. I know what you're thinking "*gasps* But-but it's a classic! How could you hate such a classical masterpiece! Surely you don't understand the meaning behind it and just need to read it again!" I hear the same thing every time I say that I don't like To Kill a Mockingbird over and over again. Of course I understood the meaning behind it all. Of course I understand why it's a classic. Of course even the writing is well done. But that doesn't change that I don't like the book and felt the need to claw my eyes out trying to read it for English class back in the 9th grade. Not only is it just not my cup of tea, but nothing even happens in the story. It's all just a really long set up to the "climax" that isn't even really eventful. And this is just my opinion. It's not fact, but it's my viewpoint on this classic.

neonhuskies submitted:

I need you because no one was ever worth needing. I need you because I was never worth needing. But you changed that.

I need you because you don’t try to fix me. I need you because without trying, you did. 

I need you because you make me want to create. I feel like a painter. The world is my canvas.

I need you because you were who I was born to need.

I need you because

I just do. 

neonhuskies submitted:

I acquired a taste for coffee through you.

You were dark, bitter, and unsugared—

just the way I didn’t like it.

I never paused to think coffee might have been taken in other ways.

You left the strongest aftertaste in my mouth.

I’ve stayed away from coffee shops since.

neonhuskies submitted:

There is no greater fear than that of loss. This, my being understands through the way it aches at the thought of losing a love undeserved. Break my body with your disdain and I’d still love you, broken fingers and all.

There are times I see you disappearing on the horizon, and I yell out your name until it is nothing but a dry-throated whisper. Sometimes you do not hear me, and all times you keep walking, with not so much as a backward glance.   

There is a place: where the only sensation is that of an arrow in the chest and a bleeding that never stops. I walk into it like a sleepwalker, unaware, and unable to resist the allure of a nightmare. 

My own voice haunts me. 

I am terrified of Sleep. 

Some stories just stick with us through the years. We tend to never forget the first book we ever read nor do we forget those first stories that we read when we were a kid that have left such an impact on us that even now, we can be randomly reminded of those stories or those characters out of nowhere and it makes us feel all nostalgic for that story all over again. We don't even need to remember the title or the character's names, but certain plots have just stuck with us, forever imprinted in our memories no matter how old we become.

A lot of kids seem to have grown up with Harry Potter or Eragon and it has left a great impact on them and maybe it's the same for you too. Other kids read books like Ramona Quimby or The Babysitters Club and it affected their lives to the same extent. And maybe some of you internally squealed when you read those titles and you were thinking "OMG I REMEMBER THAT OMG THOSE WERE THE BEST" and you probably got flashes of those stories in your head just by me mentioning it. I know that if you mentioned Goosebumps or the City of Ember series I'll squeal and relive in memories of those books all day afterwards.

Now, I will say this outright, I actually didn't like reading and books when I was a kid. I never found the point of them; those old Scholastic book fairs were more of a nuisance to me than anything. And then those days when my teacher made us travel over to the library and pick out a book because we had to read for 30 minutes a night and we had to check out a book while we were there. But since I was forced to read, I did actually read and I still have those childhood favorite books. Reading them again now makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and I laugh at the simple dialog, plot points, and characters that were used. When I think of books that I read when I was a child, I remember books like The Dollhouse Murders, The 13th Reality, Castle in the Attic, City of Ember, Goosebumps, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Haunted Schools: True Ghost Stories.

I'm a firm believer that the things we were interested in as a child affect us and our interests now. I'm not saying that all those Dr. Seuss books you read as a kid mean that you love to eat green eggs and ham and you only love to read or write poetry. What I am saying is that the genres and such that you were interested in and explored through as a kid most likely shape not only what you enjoy watching/reading/writing today, but probably your way of thought as well.

As children, our minds are sponges, soaking up everything taught to us and everything we witness. Sure you probably forget a lot of memories from all the way back when, but that doesn't mean that those experiences didn't shape your own character. Most children books teach strong morals-such as friendship, family values, trust, love, not going into that spooky old vacant schoolhouse down the road-and for a good reason. What wasn't clearly taught to us by our parents, we could explore through adventures in books, learning the consequences and the benefits of certain actions. Those books opened up our minds to new thoughts and wish fulfillment, even at such a young age. And those new doors and thoughts intrigued us for more, wanting to keep being taught the same, known morals that made us read those old books in the first place. It became a pattern to our minds, keeping up the same meaning and knowledge with a new twist on them every time. If you read books like Ramona Quimby or the Candy Apple collection, you most likely (but not absolutely) are into what are deemed by society as "chick flick" type novels, such as Sarah Dessen or Nicholas Sparks or Sarah Shepard because of the same form of themes and you probably write along the same themes and plot structures, just completely out of pure subconsciousness, because that's what your mind soaked up as a kid in it's prime sponge age. If you were a more fantasy/adventure person and read Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia, I would bet money that if I asked you what your prime genre is, you would say you now read fiction series with all sorts of branches and adventures with authors like Cassandra Clare or James Dashner. Maybe you even had a different route and when you were a kid read American Girl or The Little House or Magic School Bus  and now you read historical fiction or science fiction. You could have even been a more classics type of reader in your ripe young age and you continue reading the complicated reads from authors centuries before your time and you write in the same elegant manner.

I think you get my point by now. I'm not saying that this is all absolutely correct for everyone, but the probability is pretty high. We soaked in those morals of love and friendship, of adventure and trust, of magic and fact, and now we unconsciously sway towards those same themes because it's what we were raised on and what we know best. Our mind misses those themes and we take the lessons and morals learned from them in a weird nostalgia type of way. And then we continue on reading the same plot currents and brave characters and similar wording styles. And the writers who liked those books and genres as a rule of thumb tend to write in those same genres, causing a new generation of the same flow of characters, plots, and moral lessons as the one before.

Studies even show that we ourselves are morphed by these books that we have read/still read. We take and soak in the main characters into our own personalities, it's true. We don't do it consciously, but slowly, piece by piece, those characters that we invest ourselves into become who we are as a whole person. Even today when you're reading that new book series of yours, those characters become a part of you. A small part sure, but there's definitely a shift there. When we were kids and read these characters, we soaked in even more of those favorite book characters. The books are like our horcruxes, even from that young age. You could even be a completely different person now, or have one different personality trait, if you skipped that one solitary book from your childhood.

*crackles knuckles* SPQR

First and foremost, you're going to need to stay as close to historical facts as possible. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, you're going to want to do a lot of research on the time period so that your details are sound. And don't just go to wikipedia and call it good; you're going to need to search through textbooks and nonfiction works and multiple sites because everyone might say something a little bit different. Watching movies like Gladiator doesn't count, though you could learn a thing or two about how ancient Rome is portrayed in media.This research means that you're going to want to choose the right emperor for your story's timeline and choose the right social and political aspects and conflicts. Choose the right culture as well. Many times people mix up ancient Greece and ancient Rome and that's a big no no. Ancient Rome was pretty hardcore and you're going to want to display that.

Second, realize how different they lived versus how we live today. Try and transplant yourself into the ancient Roman society with your characters, not the other way around. Your characters would act and have the personalities of Romans, not the modern day people that surround us. Their social norms would be different and their every day living is also different. Try and write the story through how a normal person in ancient Rome would see their life, not through your own knowledge of technology, science, social morals, etc.

Third, mythology was their religion back then. They full-heartedly believed in Jupiter and Hercules and Minerva and all of it (who knows, maybe it is all true and they've been right all along). It played a big role in their culture so you can't ignore it when writing in that time period. Don't treat it as mythology; treat it like a religion.

Lastly, and this kind of goes along with the second point, but don't forget that the ancient Romans were real people. They weren't all just stiff political people or blank stick figures you read about in history textbooks. They made sarcastic comments to each other. Had personalities. Some were jokesters while others were serious. Some were nice while some were cruel. Some were smart and some were oblivious. Some were a mixture of all of these. Don't let your characters fall flat-which I find is a kind of popular thing that happens when people write in this time period. Though a part of history, they were still actual humans who probably made a penis joke when they were 11.