To Know Someone Who I Am Not

What can you trade to have a glimpse of another person’s soul? Time and books. You can never buy time for it is too costly, but books are cheaper. For a few dollars, you gain permission to see another existence different from yours. Stories carry the fleeting, unpredictable and volatile embodiment of humanity. Things that are usually unseen to the naked eye.

Reading is not a portal to escape reality. Neither it is not for good tidings nor true love. Though I may say, everyone yearns for such things but a reader is of a different matter. A reader sees past every obscurities and seeks the most precious part of a tale. She grasps the inner ocean of a man’s soul through her books.  For every written word inked in a page is a fragment of a character. Their whole lives laid down perfectly in that hands of a paperback.

But what is a reader seeking in her books? I could not answer for the general population. It differs from one reader to another. For my case, I sought a modest yet deeper treasure in the possession of a book. I search for the hidden emotions in the beautiful metaphors, sentences or letters carefully printed in paper. Their anger, their happiness, their pain, their tears, their madness, their innocence, their desires, their struggles in their very own humanity. I want to feel it and live their lives for a few minutes.

A lifetime is not enough to experience the whole universe. Yes I do have my own life, but with books, I could be someone else.  A warrior. A rebel. A lover. A pirate. A jedi. A president. A robot.  An orphan. A criminal. A bird. A scientist. An outcast. An alien. A monster. A tree. Someone who I want to know. Anyone who is not me. Maybe by reading, I could understand the complication of their souls. Maybe I could be connected to them, not just by words or experience but something more profound, life.

For me, reading is not merely a hobby. It is a way to comprehend an essence of life. A way to feel another soul’s emotions and be captivated of its passions, good or bad. Reading is my way to understand someone who I am not.