Romance of Reading

This writer is a romantic, but at least he is up front about it. I am too. In high school, I tried to write an essay about how the books a person reads (and keeps) reveal their true self. The essay failed, because at the tender age of 14, all I knew was friendship and crushes. I'd never seen my crushes bookshelves, so all I had to go on were my friends. Since their bookshelves were basically identical to mine, I pretty much just said, "my friends and I are brilliant dreamers who are sensitive and kind and hopeful and attuned to the needs of others." True or not, it wasn't the makings of a good essay. Thanks, Mrs. Barrington, for not letting me turn that in. But here are words, which express what I feel so much better than I ever could.