People Should Seriously Read More. And Think More. And Be Less Stupid in General.

I hate stupidity in all forms. Especially when it comes to not reading.

I can deal with  faults.
All but one.
And that one is dislike and disregard of reading and books and literature.
It. Drives. Me. Crazy.
Some people have excuses. But most just claim they hate reading.
To which I instantly cry "HOOOOOW?!?!?!?!"
The answer is, almost always "It's boring."

....

What?

How is reading boring? How are those words even in the same sentence?
Now, some books are just a struggle to read. For example, we're reading the Scarlet Letter in school right now. And while I like the story, I'm struggling with this book. But there are soooo many other books out there! There's knowledge and adventure and life and happiness and imagination and everything!

Do you know how much I've learned from books in my life?

A lot.

Respect. Friendship. Freedom. Love. Adventure. Hope. Choices. Mythology. Duty. How epic the world is and how brilliant people can be. How broken the world is and how cruel people can be. History. God. How to strategically design a fortress. How to make a sword. Cultures. People. How to be logical, for crying out loud. How to take over the world. How to destroy a world. How surprisingly often God shows up in books (that probably has a lot to do with my worldview, but still). How choices have consequences. Morals.

And a looooot more.

I've become hundreds of characters and been to thousands of places.

It's like, my personality, my mind, my soul, is a book. And every book I've read has added something to my soul book, be it a sentence, a paragraph, a page, or a whole chapter. They're helping shape me.

Nancy Drew and the American Girl books started it. And then I was reading anything I could get my hands on when I was like eleven. School books. Classics. Fantasy. It seriously didn't matter to me. I was almost addicted to the words and thoughts etched into paper. I was amazed at how books made me feel and think. Still am.

I think the most important lesson I've learned is how to relate to people. Reading has given me a heightened sense of empathy.

I wouldn't trade that knowledge for anything. How could anyone not want that?

I feel like, if people read more, they'd think more. They'd appreciate more. Intelligence would be so much more common. People would be less stupid.

But they don't read. They live in their bubbles of stupidity. I hate it. Things like "YOLO" and the word "Cray-cray" drive me so insane. It's like people don't realize they have a brain that they can use to make rational decisions.

Personally, I don't want to go out and do stupid stuff because "YOLO". I want to make something out of my life and build it and use it to make things better for people.

I hate stupidity. By "stupidity" I mean the conscious act of not using your God-given brain, whether it be by cheating on a test that you could easily pass if you tried, or by making a dumbed down movie, or by getting drunk for the sake of "YOLO", or anything. Can't you people at least try to be smart? I know you are, deep, deep down.

End of rant. 

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. 

Yes. 

Well. 

It's one of those books that I kinda know will be crazy sad and go in with that mindset, determined not to cry...

And I was still stuck crying my eyes out for over half the book. It's up there with The Book Thief and Unwind as far as my emotions go. 

It. Was. Amazing. 

First, let me say there was some sex in it. Not like, graphic, or anything. It was like the sex scene in the Les Miserables movie. You know what's going on, but you don't see anything, because of camera angles. But just so you know going into it, it's there. 

There was a lot of violence, too. So if you're squeamish about that, be warned. It takes place during a war, and the husband is extremely abusive.

Now for the epic parts. 

Amazing characters. 

Heartbreaking plot. 

Extremely well written. 

Miriam, for Pete's sake. She. Is. So. Epic. 

It was really engaging. It was so easy to understand, even though it's about a world that's very different from America. And this might partially be my TCKness, but I could see the places and people. 

I just need people to all read all the books I read so they understand my brain and know what I know.

Some things that stuck out to me: 

One of the girls is about to abort her child, about to kill the baby. It's her second pregnancy, and she's scared she won't be able to love the kid as much as her first child (they have different fathers). But she can't do it. 

"...She could not accept what the Mujahideen so readily had: That sometimes in war innocent life had to be taken. Her war was against Rasheed. The baby was blameless. And there had been enough killing already. Laila had seen enough killing of innocents in the crossfire of enemies."

I feel like that needs to be remembered and thought about a lot more than it is. People are so quick to disregard life, I think. We talked about this in apologetics. We were watching a movie, and all these atheists kept saying things about how life is meaningless and people have no purpose and it's all in vain and blah blah blah, and we were all like "How can you say that? Why do people choose to believe that?" 

I just liked that quote from the book, where she figured out who her fight was with, and how her baby's life was important and innocent and how the kid deserved to exist. 

There was a part when the government burned books, banned poetry, music, dancing and writing, and also took away all women's rights. My blood ran with fury and hatred. That's something that happens in the dystopian novels I read, not in reality. Apparently I was wrong about that. I'm still really mad. 

I will never be able to watch Pinocchio or Titanic normally again. 

This is one of the times I'm just mad at the stupidity of humans and Satan for screwing everything up and I want to fix everything and whyyyyy can't the world realize the incredible value of life and freedom and beauty and everything. 

This book was historical fiction, it took place between 1959 and 2003. So it's pretty recent. And it was written for a reason. The dude had a note in the back of how you can help people in Afghanistan and stuff. 

I really, really liked it. 

The end. 

House of Hades, by Rick Riordan

Oh, my.

Uncle Rick, I don't think any of your books have messed with my emotions this much since... Ever. 

Warning to all y'all reading this: SPOILERS.

Nico. That just... Grr... Now, I know gay people. I know that it's out there. I don't hate gay people.  Buuuut, this is Nico. I love Nico. I had a fictional character crush on him. I didn't see that coming (well, until like the chapter before.

Caleo. As soon as he landed I was like "I know this place. Oh, no. He'll never leave."

And then they started fighting. And I was like "Well, okay..."

When they started helping each other, and being like, friends, that was when I was like, "YESYESYESYES." Third best couple in these books. u_u the first two being Tysella and Percabeth. ;) But Leo, swearing on the Styx.... Gahhhhhh, don't you dare die on me, my love. 

Hedge being a dad. I KNEW IT. HOORAY!!!!!!! :D

Beautiful Percabeth. Best. Couple. Ever. I want a relationship like that sooo much. They have so much trust and love, and contrary to most couples in books, they aren't making out every five seconds. I love them.

Frank getting epic and tough and... attractive. Well, that was unexpected. I'm so proud of him. And kinda sad. (Yes I know he's a fictional character. Hush.)

In this book, more than any others, I saw the characters changing. Jason seemed waaaay more Greek. Percy seemed... Older. More broken. Annabeth had to make some serious choices. Frank grew up. And he gained something and lost something from that. Leo got less joking and more mature. Hazel got stronger. Piper, too. They all seem more confident. 

And then there's Nico. 

Still not sure how I feel about that. >_>

And Bob. :( yes, I knew that would happen, but still. No. At least it's better than Percy or Annabeth. 

Honestly, I looooooooved the whole book, except the Nico part.

I've been reading Percy Jackson since I was like in sixth grade. That's like...  five years? They are my childhood. I grew up with Percy and Annabeth. And now that they're growing up and changing... It's weird. I think most of the people who read the books are like that. We started reading the books when we were little and innocent, and now we're... not. And neither are the characters.

My little brother and sister are reading the first couple of Percy Jackson books. And I feel so weird to think that I was that little once. I'M ONLY SIXTEEN I SHOULD NOT FEEL THIS OLD.

So. Yes. Excellent book. Surprising, but excellent.