Black Flamed Candle Books 🕯️📚’s Reviews > Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books > Status Update

“There’s nothing I want to do more than to relax the entire day with a book”

“July is coming to an end…it would be nice to just lie in bed all day and read.
'Aren't you already reading every day?' I can hear your thoughts from the other side of the book.”

“When I imagine myself as a novel character, I crave the infinite possibilities of life. To step away from the dichotomy of success and failure, and stop judging a person's life based on their achievements or mistakes. I read to live in the moment.”

“Ultimately, it's either a happy ending or a sad one.
Life, too, doesn't care whether you succeed or fail in the end. What's important is how you choose to live each day, what you learnt, and the kind of stories you want to fill your life.”

“And those who name a character after themselves - is that their way of finding purpose in storytelling?”

“I wonder what authors are thinking when they write a novel. Do they want to put a bit of themselves inside?” (Self-insert?)

“Just like I analyse characters in a novel, I am better able to observe myself from a distance. I…give everything to live a vivid, colourful life, I'm the type who realises, belatedly, how plain my life is and then feels a lingering regret that I hadn't done more.”

“To observe myself objectively, sometimes I imagine myself as a fictional character. When I do that, it's as if I'm looking at ‘me’ through a camera. In a novel, what type of character would I be? I don't think I'm the type that causes trouble…Maybe I'm the bluntly honest friend that rubs others up the wrong way?”

“Good books teach us empathy and connect each of us.”

“Empathy, whether given or received, is important. To understand that some things are universal, but at the same time to accept individual differences. When we’re able to empathise with others, we’re also learning to embrace ourselves positively, and to spread that positivity to others. When we try to understand others, they do the same for us, and that's how we bond.“