Books

I suppose I should introduce myself, seeing as you don’t know anything about me.

My name is Emma. Boring, normal and ‘mundane’ name, yet so intriguing. People sometimes ask me how I feel about sharing my first name with some the famous Hollywood actresses. My answer is: I. Don’t. Bloody. Care. I’m my own person. Speaking of which, I read Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (again!) and I was left a bit reeling. Hermione changed so much: from the annoying, bushy know-it-all into a rebel and starter of revolution.... I started asking myself: how much of the book reflects its writer’s true feelings and opinions, and how much is written because of the demand of public (and I don’t mean it in a positive way!).

Let me explain. In the last two decades, the number of book writers literally skyrocketed: every now and then I hear about new franchises,new fandoms... What the hell is going on?! I, as an avid book lover, find this very intriguing and worrying. I mean, I read most of today's bestsellers like Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, Mortal Instruments, 39 clues, The Fault In Our Stars and so on and so on. Let's face it people, there are very few of those new books that can teach you about something you'll truly need in your life. Most of them were written either because writer really wanted to make us fell and think(like The Fault In Our Stars: that one seriously gets to your heart) or to be appealing to wide range of readers: easy-to-read, funny and often irritating cliché.

Twi-hards, don't kill me now, but I really don't understand your fixation on that series. I admit, when I first read I fell in love with it too, but don't you think it's a bit shallow? I know it's the story about love and its immortality, yadda yadda, but basically the plot of the whole series is about a girl who can't choose between werewolf(shape shifter it means y, whatever!) and a vampire and all the complications that arises from that. 

What do you truly like: a book or a character?

I think every fan of anything, books in this case, should really stop and ask himself: how much of your love for the book is for the plot, and how much for the characters. Have you read, for example, PJO just because you thought Logan Lerman was cute in the movie? Or have you read it because you wanted to see the way author put Greek myths into this era(namely me)? These are just the examples, by the way, so you can't say I'm bashing Twilight. (Gah! I'm still stuck on my Fanfiction vocabulary!)

What I wanted to tell you is to be more critical toward your choices of books. I know it'll be hard to get past the infatuation, but if you can make three logical arguments as for why you like certain book, it means that the book and its message has wormed its way into your life - and by logical I mean about plot and narration, not, I don't know, about how good character looks or something like that.

You think you can do that? I surely can. And I'm only sixteen, for heaven's sake!