Unless it’s the relationship to die for, ending things with someone (or something) can be brutally painful. Most of you bookworms will agree – you know what I’m talking about. How many books have you got stuffed into your shelves? How many of those have you read more than once?
Reading a book is not just about going through the pages. It’s a journey – a love affair, even. Once you start reading through those very first phrases, sentences, paragraphs, you just know – from the very beginning – that you will be investing more than you thought you would. It will start off lightly, with a few chuckles and giggles here and there. Occasional cringes and sighs, too. And before you know it, you are hooked, and the character development has progressed into a deep and binding relationship between you and these imaginary (or not) people you are reading about.
Like any good book, the thrill of reading cannot wait until tomorrow, or later, or next week. You just have to finish it right away. You get to the climax, and soon enough, to the very end. The story is concluded and the last few pages pass through swiftly. You look outside the window or up the ceiling and into a haze as you ruminate over the good book you’ve just finished. If you’re like me, you might even obsess over it for the next few days (or at times, weeks!) until everyone you know is just tired of hearing you talking about the same stuff over and over. But it’s just too hard to let go. What was a matter of hours being with that book felt more like an eternity – in a distant universe, with new people and their new problems, all of which you were a part of. But now it’s all done and gone.
The inability to let go of that tiny attachment between you and an entirely different world inside that book is as difficult as it gets. I, for one, cannot count how many times my sister or a roommate has sneaked up on me as I cried my eyes out over a love story, or how many times I skipped dinner just to know where the protagonist’s journey was going to end. But, at some point, we have to move on. You break up with a much-loved book – keep it shelved in your room for safekeeping – and move on. It seems daunting, but then, there’s the brighter side of things: starting all over. It’s that fluttery feeling when you go out on a date for the first time, all over again, and you start to get to know new characters and their stories.