Why do you love the books you love?

[Dori]

In answering your question, I have to quote Jane Austen (albeit poorly), who said that, "Any person, be they man or woman, who does not take pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid." I find it hard to disagree, because usually I don't get along with people who don't read.

I find it easy to disagree with that. I'm sure Mark Twain would too; he once said, "Just the omission of Jane Austen’s books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it." ( I can't help laughing everytime I read this.) But I don't disagree for the same reasons. In other words, I have no grudge against Jane Austen.


Although I might exaggerate, I think the following quote from one of my favorite books will suffice in explaining why I love reading.

"[Frollo] was possessed by an absolute fever for the acquiring and storing of knowledge. At eighteen, he had made his way through the four facalties; it seemed to the young man that life had but one sole aim: knowledge."

(from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo)

Like I mentioned above, this quote exaggerates my condition. In a few words, I love reading because I love to learn.

[Hira]

The first time I truly fell in love reading books was with Harry Potter. And then Lord of the Rings. It was an escape. I stood entranced at my tiny doorway. I could feel these worlds. Hogwarts castle, MiddleEarth. They lifted me out of my mundanity.

I feel an uncanny exultation in words. In sentences. The way they unveil, bring out hidden meanings. Beautiful, beautiful meanings. Seem to explain our very existence. So, I go on, with the hope that things would stand in more light perhaps, in the end.

[watuknocankillu]

some books with just a story in them to lose your imagination in are fun i guess.
but i like to read books with a meaning and something you can take with you after you've read them. to teach you things you never wouldve thought of and give you a different perspective than that which normally comes across in books.

[Bakiryu]

They just "feel" good. Is like explaining a love for chocolate. Why do you like it? it's just good.

[LadyWentworth]

They just "feel" good. Is like explaining a love for chocolate. Why do you like it? it's just good.

Exactly!!

But then I suppose you'd have to really love chocolate to agree with this statement!

[crazefest456]

When I read books, I go under trance where I just lose my physical consciousness and become (not neccesarily part of it but) part of the narration...Like, I take the narrator in the book's place. It sort of gets too intense (in Crime and Punishment) and I start getting very emotional...That's why I love it; I become human again.

[aeroport]

I love the books I love because they stave off the impending, the ever-imposing, terrible loneliness of life.

[amanda_isabel]

when the words become real, that's when i know i like a book. like, when you fall in love, er.. become infatuated with the characters in the book. but then, author must be pretty good if they can call for infatuation to a fragment of stimulated imagination

[karo]

I love the books I love for the same reasons I love the people I love:

- Some because they are easy to get on with and make me feel comfortable.
- Some because they challenge me and force me to confront what I'd rather avoid.
- Some because they can make me laugh so effortlessly.
- Some because they can bring pain and tears with equal ease.
- Some because they reflect my own life and experiences.
- Some because they are so different from my own life and experiences.
- Some because they confirm me in my views.
- Some because they convert me to new views.
- Some because they show the confusion in what seems simple.
- Some because they clarify what is perplexing.
- Some because they have nice covers - although this applies to the people more then the books!
- Some because they are constant and true.
- Some because they are changeable and unpredictable.
- Some because they tell the truth.
- Some because their lies are so beguiling.

And some for no reason at all. Just because I do. And these are often the best of them.

How excellently well put! There's little I could add to this. Reading for me is about learning, discovery, gaining perspective, appreciation of language and creativity and, above all, enjoyment in the colourfulness of literature. I like the way you've expressed your answer.

[Oniw17]

Intelligent Discussion. History(specifically history that I know). Philosophy. And backstories.

[Wyoecho]

I love the books I do because they allow an escape from the mundane existence of the work-a-day world. Books also give me new ideas.

[ThePianoMan]

It depends on the book, but there are a number of things that make me love books.
- Characters that really feel real. Fictitious people that seem like real human beings, pleasant or not.
- Plots that make me want to keep on turning the pages.
- Really good writing, which by itself is a joy to read.
- Insights on life. I love it when a book gives me a new way of looking at things.

[naomi moon]

"When I read books, I go under trance where I just lose my physical consciousness and become (not necessarily part of it but) part of the narration...Like, I take the narrator in the book's place" Well said crazefest456 I feel the same way when it comes to reading books

[Erichtho]

I don't think I have a pattern for loving a book. My two favourite writers, Franz Kafka and Friedrich Hölderlin, couldn't be any more different, they have absolutely nothing in common except for the language they wrote in.

I always recognise a book as being good or bad, no matter in which situation I read it, but what makes a great book lovable for me is not so much its beauty, but the biographical moment in which I pick it up. Sometimes one is just more impressible, more capable of indulging in greatness...

Kafka was for me love at second sight; I had read already a collection of his short stories, which I enjoyed but thought of as nothing too outstanding. At one point I spent some weeks abroad, had nothing to read anymore and couldn't read in that country's language, so I went to the student's corner of a bookstore, where they had different readings for foreign language classes, and amongst the few German books was Kafka's Das Schloß. I bought it and read it three times during my sojourn; I fell in love with it, and still there is this tattered book on my shelf, printed on bad paper and with footnotes with explanations for "difficult" phrases.

My love for Hölderlin was much more immediately, after I read the first sentences of Hyperion it just clicked, I read slowly, as slowly as I could, and with increasing pleasure, and by the time I had turned around the last page I remained in adoration.

[chasestalling]

One criteria for me: will it be as good if not better when reread.