Another day, called for another attempt to get me interested in reading. The only difference between that day and all the others, was that, day was successful. For context, a flashback is required; imagine a young girl roaming around a small library wearing a red and white checkered dress and a pair of black Mary Jane shoes with white socks. That was me, someone who was more interested in the graphics and illustrations in books rather than the text of the book. While most of my friends read Nancy Drew, Famous Five, and Roald Dahl books, I walked around aimlessly in the library for the duration of my reading period. 

While talking to my mother about the day I had at school, she never forgot to ask what I read in the library; as usual I answered  “nothing interesting.” She had tried to buy all the diverse categories of books, encyclopedias, and library subscriptions, to pique my interest in reading. However, none of those books encouraged  me to read beyond my school textbooks and syllabus. 

This ignorant relation between me and reading changed when my mother took me to a pre-owned market, where she went to buy her college textbooks. The weather was hot and humid,  with bookstalls lined up against the sidewalk with blue plastic roofs. The books were filled with notes from their previous owners, some in good condition, while others carried the wear and tear they faced from multiple hands. Today was the day I will tell you, where I bought the book that made me fall in love with reading.  

While looking through a few hundred rows of books that occupied most of the sidewalk, I wandered from across the various stalls trying to find a book that could catch my attention. The books displayed at the stalls ranged from autobiographies to science fiction books to supplementary medical textbooks. 

The warm humid breeze carried the smell of old books and jaded pages. I glanced at the various books displayed, the autobiography of Adlof Hilter “Mein Kampf,” cook books, and amongst the plethora of books lay the book I would come to love. Flipping through the jaded pages, I found myself reading snippets of different worlds, some set in a futuristic setting, others in the 18th or 19th century, and others on an entirely different planet with rules completely different from ours. I read snippets of a character’s conflicting thoughts while trying to make a decision, celebrating overcoming a challenge, and others grieving over losing their loved one or not being able to get to their desired goal. Amongst these snippets I found myself getting interested in a book that described a stormy scene with tensions high about what would happen next. 

It was a young adult fantasy fiction novel. The story was exactly something that I was looking for, something that was not serious trying to teach me a lesson or tell me about somebody’s life.  It was a thick novel with an interesting black cover, it caught my attention almost immediately, the black base had purple designs with the title embossed. Fascinated by the snippet, I picked up the book and began reading the synopsis printed on the back cover.  I felt gravitated towards it, and for the first time I willingly purchased a book at the not very young age of thirteen.

Soon after, I began reading my first novel, “Beautiful Creatures.”  It took a few weeks for me to get accustomed to the lengthy descriptions that detailed the setting along each character’s description and their importance in the story. I gradually got accustomed to the book and became familiar with its characters and got curious about what each character would do in the story. I carried the book with me everywhere, from dance class till the end of the day at my bed.This new habit was quite surprising to my friends who had known my indifference towards books. 

As I turned the last page of the book, I knew I had found a love for reading. The descriptions of each setting of the book along with the details of each character’s emotions and mood, enchanted me by making me feel as though I was witnessing the story first hand. I vividly remember picturing a stormy scene from the Beautiful Creature book, each detail of the clouds, the sound of the thunder, the lightning, made me feel as if I was standing right there experiencing the storm. It was moments like those, where I was able to feel parts of worlds that did not exist that made me fall in love with books. 

Instead of roaming aimlessly in the library, I found myself back in the same library I roamed around aimlessly in, instead this time I was looking for books to read with gripping story lines, full of adventures, and witty characters that made me sit at the edge of my seat on every page and allowed me to live multiple lives through the various characters’ journeys. 

I had purchased three out of the four books in the “Beautiful Creatures” series. However, buying a hard copy of the last book was nearly impossible as the book was not printed anymore, leaving only a certain number of copies of the book available, forcing me to read the last book online. However, a preloved copy of the book had been on my Amazon wishlist for over 2 years, before my friends recently gifted it to me for my birthday this year. 

Reflecting back on the day I bought the book, I remember that while thinking whether I should buy the book or not, I remembered the quote, “never judge a book by its cover,” but thankfully I did look at the fancy cover of the book, as it led to me finally developing interest for books and reading. Today, I continue to read while growing my personal collection of books to about 30 books now, that include various fantasy, science fiction, and recently classic books. Among my collection, I safely keep “Freaky Facts”, a book about funny laws, facts about animals, insects and more, as a memory of the book I purchased at seven, in an attempt to once again pique my interest in reading. 

The relationship that I have with the “Beautiful Creatures” series will always remain special to me. It was the book that started my hobby of collecting books, turning my closet into the mini library it is today. The younger me still wonders how a simple book that I bought from a sidewalk changed me and my love for reading, and brought a new perspective to my living.

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