A couple days ago I was bored and had no novels from the library, so I took out the ipad and browsed the library's selection of available ebooks--not my favourite format, but I really felt like reading for a bit. One novel caught my eye, because the author and I are Twitter buddies (my Twitter is non-writing, but hers does mention the book--for some reason I'd never looked it up). It sounded like my cup of tea so I thought I'd have a look.
I read it straight through. In one sitting. I can't recall ever doing that with a novel before (I can think of one non-fiction book that did it). It is, of course, a very good book, well-written with a touching story and endearing characters. But the most significant thing to me was the personal connection I had with it--it felt very, very much like the story of my first love. Like a lot of that relationship, the novel unfolded through letters, and I felt very nearly as if I was reading the early correspondence between me and that long-ago fellow of mine. I was in tears through most of it--even (maybe especially) the happy parts--and sometimes stopped at the end of the chapter to break down and sob. I never cried so much at a book. I'm sure it depends on the reader but I really like that kind of thing--I love when a book can make me cry (as long as it's not cheaply), and to be caught up in such intense feeling the whole time I read was really incredible, if draining. The book had a happier ending than my romance, which was lovely. I actually wrote the writer as soon as I'd finished to tell her what it had meant to me; she is lovely too and already wrote me a nice response.
What does this have to do with writing, as opposed to reading? Well, it's really been illuminating to think of how that novel moved me. Of course I've been moved by novels before, and cried plenty, and loved characters, but connecting so intensely to a novel certainly isn't something that's happened to me in a long time, if ever. And it makes me think--wow. Someone else's novel can do that to me. Of course the story doesn't mean exactly the same thing to me as it does to her, and a reader could never love characters quite as much as an author--but it meant a lot, and I loved the characters. And I think--one day, my novel could do that. Even if it's just one reader out of all of them, someone could feel my novel like I felt this one. That alone would make all of it worthwhile.
