I have always loved to read. I taught it myself in kindergarten because I was bored and by the age of nine I had not only read The Lord of the Rings but I also knew most of the poems in it by heart. Of course I didn't really select my books carefully back then, I read everything I found interesting and this turned out to be mostly fantasy. Like every young girl I also had a weak spot for romance and that's the reason I turned to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight when I was twelve.
Nothing could have prepared me for how this book changed my life. I even dare say I would be a different person today if I hadn't read -devoured, in fact- this love story that seemed to have been written solely for me. I guess this needs some explanation because as good a novel as Twilight is (and I still think that, despite the rather disappointing sequels and the horrible movie) it still is a love story for teenagers....Nothing life-changing.
Except for me, the heartbreaking romance and the gripping plot were mere side effects, the real meaning this book had for me can be summed up in two words:
Edward Cullen.
(Imagine now a bunch of teenage girls screaming hysterically: "Edward, marry me! No, bite me!)
And please, before you stop reading annoyed and disgustedly, let me tell you that this, again, needs some explanation.
Sure, the sensitive, lonely and drop-dead handsome vampire is the crush of all schoolgirls, but for my twelve-year-old self he was even more than that. Strange as it may seem, he was my badly needed role model. When I was twelve I was on the border between being a child and being a teenager, I had just started to go out with friends and while I (like most kids) couldn't wait to grow up, the thought of being a teenager wasn't very appealing to me. I simply wasn't the kind of girl who spent hours talking about make up and swooning over pop stars and in my imagination that was exactly the definition of being a teenager.
And suddenly he was there. Edward was a teenager (well, more or less...let's just ignore that he's in fact 104 years old) and he was sophisticated, well-educated, intellectual and literate. He could quote from Wuthering Heights and seemed to have read every important book in the world. He was eloquent, pensive and philosophic.
In short, he was exactly the person I wanted to be.
This educational ideal Edward Cullen epitomised has never left me and therefor I gradually started to read classics. It began with well known things like Romeo and Juliet and I realised that - honestly to my immense surprise- I did not only enjoy the knowledge of becoming more and more educated with each page, but I also found just as much pleasure in reading Shakespeare as I did in Harry Potter.
And now, almost four years later I finally decided on writing a blog to keep track of my success and to get in touch with other bibliophiles. Let's finish with Pip's words from Great expectations:
Sure, the sensitive, lonely and drop-dead handsome vampire is the crush of all schoolgirls, but for my twelve-year-old self he was even more than that. Strange as it may seem, he was my badly needed role model. When I was twelve I was on the border between being a child and being a teenager, I had just started to go out with friends and while I (like most kids) couldn't wait to grow up, the thought of being a teenager wasn't very appealing to me. I simply wasn't the kind of girl who spent hours talking about make up and swooning over pop stars and in my imagination that was exactly the definition of being a teenager.
And suddenly he was there. Edward was a teenager (well, more or less...let's just ignore that he's in fact 104 years old) and he was sophisticated, well-educated, intellectual and literate. He could quote from Wuthering Heights and seemed to have read every important book in the world. He was eloquent, pensive and philosophic.
In short, he was exactly the person I wanted to be.
This educational ideal Edward Cullen epitomised has never left me and therefor I gradually started to read classics. It began with well known things like Romeo and Juliet and I realised that - honestly to my immense surprise- I did not only enjoy the knowledge of becoming more and more educated with each page, but I also found just as much pleasure in reading Shakespeare as I did in Harry Potter.
And now, almost four years later I finally decided on writing a blog to keep track of my success and to get in touch with other bibliophiles. Let's finish with Pip's words from Great expectations:
"Miss Havisham asked me such questions as what had I learned and what was I going to be? I told her I was going to be appreticed to Joe, I believed; and I enlarged upon my knowing nothing and wanting to know everything..."
