I remember how I would never go anywhere without a book. A book disconnected me from the rest of the world. The fact that I wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening around me made me invisible. I would not feel awkward in a crowd because I had a book with me. I took sanctuary in books.
Source
Presently, I will blame the fact that I am clueless about a lot of things because I had been engrossed in the pages of books more than anything else. If I have any special skill or talent, all credit goes to all the characters I found in each book I read.
I know a lot of things I had practiced after learning a character did it in a book. For instance, I felt the need to learn to bake when I read about Apple Pie in a book. The girl in the story was homely but she was fat. Her younger sister was considered more pleasantly looking because she wasn't fat. And she knew how to dress up, and attract different men in her locality.
I decided to take the side of this character that everyone disliked. I have no idea why I am drawn to people who are often ridiculed or discriminated against. But you are seeing that I had done it with my fictional characters too. Now, my fat character never bothered about how she looked. She was treated like a slave in her house. She ran all of the house chores, while her junior sister entertained the visitors and display all of her newly bought outfits. You could say this is one of those Cinderella Stories, harsh step-sisters and wicked stepmother. Only, my character had a blood sibling, and not a step one. And she had no stepmom except her old father.
My character stuck to her role, until, a young man came into their lives. He saw her, and her junior sister. But he took a liking to her. Her younger sister couldn't imagine how the handsome man would prefer her fat and not shaped sister to her who had a dazzling appearance and all the guys on her fingers. She was mad, and angry, and staged a series of events and circumstances to get his attention, but nothing worked.
When all else failed, I don't remember the series of events that took place, she made the young man be sent to a place, and couldn't be contacted. And this young woman gave her elder sister a note containing the vilest words someone had said to her, and she claimed the young man had sent it. This had broken my character, shattered her. For someone who lived on food, She stopped eating, and didn't even take a good look at herself in the mirror nor did she step out of the house.
You can be sure the house chores suffered, but she didn't care, she stayed indoors, sulking, and mending her broken heart. Until, one day, she stepped out, and everyone was amazed by how much weight she lost. No, she didn't notice her weight was gone, it was one of the women that called her attention to it.
I would sincerely love to complete that story, but, it's way longer than this. You candy bet the story had a happy ending because it did. I wish I remembered the name of the novel, I don't. I have read so many books in this life that I have lost track of the names. The only memories I have left are the storylines and the characters.
The fact that I still have those storylines and characters left in my head is the reason I can navigate through life even though I have no clue how reality works. Someone had outrightly told me I suck because I am naive and that I do things simply because I read them in those useless books of mine.
I laugh him off because he wouldn't understand how much of a sanctuary my books are to me. And my dad had told me that books and movies are not reality, and I paid deaf ears. I can connect with the author and his characters. And books had taught me a large percentage of the life skills that I have. And I will forever be grateful to my mum for the singular advice she gave me about reading.