The Girl on the Stairs

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much though." - J.D Salinger, Catcher in the Rye.

I've read since I can remember, aside from climbing trees and building dens, I was ever the girl on the stairs at my Grandpa's house. Hunched over in the natural light, eyes wide, knees up to my chest, buried in words that my brain was only beginning to understand, the only sound was that of the pages turning every minute or so and the hourly chime of the Grandfather clock.

There is no concept of time for books, your favourite adventure can span for years, whipping you from reality and into the middle of that quidditch match, or a sinister killer hunt, or even a light-hearted girlie romp on the streets of Paris. Wherever you want to go, it's all waiting for you on those pages.

Lately, I've realised that actually, despite studying law making me want to run for the hills and do nothing but exist in numb silence with 50 dogs for the next ten years, I do desire to have a career. I can see myself buried in a fort of books behind a desk, commissioning talented artists to showcase their visions on the covers of novels, working tirelessly at a job where I feel passionate about what I am doing. (Plus it would give me a handy insight into the workings of publishers for future reference when I am penning novels left right and centre.)

You may be a book person, or you may not (I don't know what went wrong with your childhood if this is the case, but I'm sorry -you've missed out) but regardless, I believe that there is the perfect book for everyone, whether its erotic fiction or a study on the life of mammals, everyone and everybody can escape.

What baffles me is, the amount of children currently in the younger generation who choose to sit for hours on a gaming console shooting things and wasting (not much) energy on something that isn't going to improve their intelligence, the way they speak, or their creativity. Plus, EVERYTHING IS THERE FOR YOU... WHERE IS YOUR IMAGINATION?
I want to firmly shake these children and beg them to introduce themselves to the foreign concept of those things with pages and words that create images only they can conjure up, the most precious thing about a book is that nobody sees the characters the way you do, nobody can see that dramatic mountainous landscape or dreary New York alleyway the way you can, it's all created by you, even the author himself can't control entirely how you see it.

I feel a genuine loss when I think of all the brilliant minds that are going to waste on pixelated screens, minds that will never know the joy you can get from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Faraway Tree and of course Harry Potter. Each book is a journey that changes you and the way you think, they open minds and expand the inner vision.

I can remember being five or six years old, legs crossed, wriggling in anticipation amongst my other classmates as we waited for our primary school teacher to read us our daily segment of 'Inkheart' - this is what I can remember as being the start of my love for books. After that, every opportunity I could get I was buying books, and once I got a library card, there was no stopping me.

Other prominent books from my childhood are the 'Animal Ark' books (which explains my obsession with dogs) and - don't judge - the Secret Unicorn series by Linda Chapman as well as the Famous Five and Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton. I also read a lot of books about Ghosts and the Titanic, convinced that I could become a deep sea diver and find the ghost of Jack. It's safe to say, as a child, I was a crazy dolphin and dog fan with a desire to own a unicorn and live in a treehouse. Although, I can't say it's much different now.

The high school English side of things can dampen your spirits slightly when that arrives. For some people, I can imagine going from barely reading the name of the cereal you eat to heavy-ass Shakespeare soliloquys can damage that desire to read forever (as you can imagine, for a book nerd like me, this wasn't the case) but I hope to embark on a quest that changes this vision, and reinstates people's desire to read. A lot of us get bored with our own lives yet we find the time to complain, sitting there scrolling through social media with the enthusiasm of a carrot - but if we just picked up a good book, this could be changed, and we could be adventuring through exotic ancient lands at 8pm on a Monday night or even getting into bed with a tanned lover who has the body of a greek god on your lunch break (scandalous, I know).

In all seriousness, I urge you to find a book you are shamelessly passionate about and let yourself escape. For me, its a serious worry that this lifetime won't give me enough hours to spend turning those beloved pages.