An unexpected gift of words
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I am picky, very picky about the choices of my books. I love to read but something about the book must call me otherwise I usually keep pushing it away. This same stubbornness made many a friend of mine to stop or at least hesitate before pitching me a book.
It isn’t that I am not open to suggestions but there must be something about it that must click; either the plot or the characters or perhaps the intensity and build up. This is what leads me into today’s idea for this article. Picky choices that I was not expecting to like.
When you are annoying as me while selecting books, it takes a whole lot of sighs and staring at various shelves or online reviews before you find something that interests you and there are also times when you find nothing and just pick out something with either an interesting cover or something which has collectively high rating or positive reviews.
So, today’s choices and selection are due to latter reasons. I chose them due to various reasons but loved them all because they deserve no less.
1. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
Genre: Fantasy Fiction, High fantasy
Subject: Better vampires than Twilight
Length: 752 pages
Rating: 4.4/5 on Goodreads
Twilight had ruined vampires for me, for quite a while too. Sparkling disco balls with emotional constipation anyone? Nope. True Blood redeemed them a little bit, but Vampire Diaries made them mushy, squishy love symbols again.
We sparklify everything, we didn’t even leave zombies alone! Sometimes, scary is best left scary. So, then I walked away from this genre for a while; anytime I saw a book with a vampire on it my cringe memories of Twilight returned I decided that it was best left alone on the shelf.
Then after a while I had hit a reading snag, I wanted to read but I was unable to find any books. So, what now? Insta Book Hunt time!
This is where I scroll through Insta and see what catches my eye, after a while Empire of the Vampire (EoV) did.
It started with its cover.
Why didn’t I want to fall in love with it?
This one book I judged by its cover. It was beautiful and stunning. But then it was about vampires, and I immediately rolled my eyes and expected it to be another cliché vampire romance. The whole he wants her blood, and she wants his misery cycle, but man was I wrong.
It was everything I wanted in a book; war, a flawed hero, honest characters with actual lines, and villains that think.
The plot, dear god the plot!
It captivated me from page one, and it’s a heavy book so there was plenty to get lost it. The best part about this book it that just because it’s a large book the author did not fill it with meaningless words; he made every page count.
To make things even better, there are beautiful illustrations in there. So, not only you get a badass story, but you also get to see you favorite characters come to life too!
Psst! Guys, it’s also going to be a series!
So, if you want vampires done right and an epic battle to lose yourself in, then this is the book for you!
Words for days:
- “If we spend all our lives in darkness, is it any wonder when darkness starts to live in us?”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire
- “Put a man in a room for a hundred years with a thousand books, and he’ll know a million truths. Put him in a room for a year with silence, and he’ll know himself.”
― Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire
- “You’re sailing awfully close to the shores of a little island most call None of Your Fucking Business.”
2. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Genre: Children’s literature, Fable, Novella, Speculative fiction
Subject: Better lessons than an entire school curriculum
Length: 127 pages
Rating: 4.3/5 on Goodreads
I was not going to read this book at all, for reasons unknown even to me. I felt it was childish, perhaps meant to be read to children as a bedtime story. My friends had recommended it more than once, but I kept pushing it away.
So, one fine day when I didn’t have anything to read, I had decided to pick it up and finally read it. It was worth it. I never poured over a book as much as I poured over The Little Prince. Every page was filled with words that managed to form sentences that will be written into your soul.
The Little Prince gave me in 127 pages what a lifetime of school taught lessons couldn’t.
Why didn’t I want to fall in love with it?
It seemed boring. I judged it most harshly. I thought what content a tiny book like this could possibly possess. I scoffed thinking it was something for people who didn’t like to read much.
But I am so glad I was wrong.
The Little Prince taught me to fall in love with myself and the people around me all over again. How long do we plan in chasing things that don’t matter? How long do we keep running away from things that do matter? We take everything for granted and are so determined to fit into constraints set forth by people whose primary duty is to only tear us apart that we forget to live life for ourselves.
It’s easy to be miserable but hard to be happy.
The Little Prince taught me that it’s not too late though. We always have a chance to be happy if we only care enough to strive for it. Happiness isn’t an object it’s people, it’s places, it’s what we pour our love into.
We can like many things yet love only one of them and this is what our happiness is tied into.
The moment I turned the pages I got to see the world with childlike wonder and relearn so many things.
It was a 127 pages long journey into a world of possibilities.
Somehow when I closed this book, I felt as though it was the longest book I had ever read.
Words for days:
- “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
- “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
- “Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Historical fiction, Drama, Classic
Subject: The price of friendship
Length: 371 pages
Rating: 4.3/5 on Goodreads
Some books stay hidden like gems or ancient relics within a cave. We keep coming across them, but we miss out on them for reasons unknown; maybe the cover didn’t catch my eye or maybe the summary didn’t attract me or I maybe I just didn’t find it calling me enough.
This book was in my library for a long time, and I kept passing it by every single time. I knew it was a beautiful book, but I knew the time wasn’t right for it. Then after a while I had a streak of books that I could not connect to after which I took a break during which I didn’t read anything and that was when I finally decided to pick this book. I haven’t regretted it even once.
The Kite Runner was a difficult read, but it’s worth every word that’s inside it. It’s so beautifully written and the tale is so well put together that I can never stop enjoying it.
Why didn’t I want to fall in love with it?
It’s dark, incredible so. The words aren’t for everyone, and they don’t disappear as soon as you close the book; you can taste them for quite a while.
The Kite Runner taught me a lot about people and the kind of trust you tend to place upon them and the levels to which people are capable of shattering it, even if it is unknowingly.
It taught me though we may claim to be educated or well off compared to certain people, it doesn’t necessarily make us better than them or place us upon a higher pedestal. A lot of what we are is based of how we treat those around us, from family, to friends, to even unknown strangers.
It only takes one moment to erase everything about a person, our castle is only as strong as it’s walls; it matters who you choose to build those walls with. So, this book shook me in more ways than one and made me realize much of what we see in a person is a lie.
But it also taught me that we are all capable of change, capable of growing and becoming more than what the society assigned us to be, but we can only grow if we consciously decide to do so.
This book was 371 pages of sentiments.
Words for days:
- “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime…”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
- “Not a word passes between us, not because we have nothing to say, but because we don’t have to say anything”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
- “For you, a thousand times over”
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Every book tells you a story, teaches you a lesson but there are only a few books that will teach you an emotion and for me unexpectedly these were the ones. They managed to engrave an entire lifetime worth of lessons within my soul.
I may have been picky enough to miss out on them once, but I do not regret reading them for a second. Books are fun in that way, they don’t judge you for not reading them or for walking past them without a glance, they give you the same treatment regardless.
Within the pages of a book, we are all equals.
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Thank you for reading! Also, I sure do love support and coffees! 💜
