Me - a bookworm?

When I was a young wee girl, I always wanted my mother to read me bedtime stories. I loved the way the words softly fell from her lips, and it was incredible how those little syllables tied together could build a whole world in front of my eyes. There are some deeply impressive stories that I’ve first experienced through my mother’s reading and later by reading them myself. One good example of this is The Chronicles of Narnia. The books left me in awe because of their wondrous world, earthy main characters and exhilarating creatures.

I learned to read at the age of six with the help of good old Donald Duck. I was paging through a Donald Duck paperback, and suddenly the secret of reading became clear to me. The written letters just started to make sense. Ever since that joyful day, reading has enthralled me like no other pastime.

Reading books is an important part of my life. There may be times when I don’t read that much, but I can’t be too long without reading a book. Some of my friends read barely two books per year, and for me it’s perfectly normal to read about 50 of them in the same amount of time. I just love to turn the pages, smell the scent of paper and wait for the book to take me somewhere far away.

One of the best things about reading is the fact that you can travel to another world without moving a bit. If you forget about everything around you and just live wherever the book takes you, you know you’re reading something special. There’s nothing quite like the feeling when you simply can’t let go of the book. It is just magical when the characters of the book feel like real people to you, and you can really relate to their feelings.

I don’t know if everyone has that one favourite book or series which rises above all others, but I certainly have. I’ve read all kinds of books from classics, like Wuthering Heights and Catcher in the Rye, to modern popular series, like The Hunger Games, but nothing has yet overcome the Harry Potter series. I still remember reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the first time when I was seven. For some reason, I had started the series by reading its second book, but it didn’t bother my reading experience whatsoever. I was completely blown away by the book, and I wouldn’t have let go of the universe I had just discovered for anything. I’ve grown up with the world and characters of Harry Potter. Though all the seven books are published now, that world and those characters still live in my mind, and Harry Potter will always have a special place in my heart. It is sad not to have another Harry Potter book to wait for, but fortunately I can always start the journey with Harry, Ron and Hermione all over again from the very beginning.

After all I’ve written above, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a bookworm of epic proportions. You can’t really compare the power of heart-wrenching, beautiful, exhilarating written words to anything. For me, it’s pure magic.