Bunny Brain: Reading

It might be a coincidence that I am into reading again all of a sudden. It might be a coincidence that the author of Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk explains the difference between writing a book and writing a movie in the afterword in Haunted. It might be a coincidence that I was reading Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted. It might be a coincidence that a bunny of mine discussed why I love reading so much and why he hates it. But all of them motivate me to write the first Bunny Brain entry on Reading.

Palahniuk tells his readers how 73 people fainted when one of the short stories named "Guts" was read during the book tour. It became The 'Guts' Effect, which happens to be the title of the afterword in Haunted. In The 'Guts' Effect, Palahniuk precisely portrays the magic of books:

Because only books have that power.

 A motion picture, or music, or television, they have to maintain a certain decorum in order to be broadcast to a vast of audience. Other forms of mass media cost too much to produce to risk reaching only a limited audience. Only one person. But a book...A book is as private and consensual as sex...No one really gives a damn about books.

But with that disregard comes the freedom that only books have...But, if you want the freedom to go anywhere, talk about anything, then write books.

And 'Guts' is by no means the darkest or funniest or most upsetting story from the novel Haunted. Some, I didn't dare read in public.

These are the places that only books can go.

This is the advantage that books still have. This is why I write.

A reading experience, to me, is not only an attempt to re-create the reality in the author's mind. Instead, it is a mutual effort to create a virtual reality. With author's words, readers input their own imaginations, memories and emotions to build up a story that they can relate, connect and hence feel. With the same text, thousands of stories could be born. All are different, unique and personal. Besides, there are feelings so intense that no matter how you express them, it is always an understatement. Through reading, you read the feelings that you are never capable of expressing. Gradually you share the feelings with the author. It is amazing how you fall in love with Luke Brandon just like Becky Bloomwood does. It is incredible how you feel pain when the narrator in Fight Club hurts himself. That's why sometimes you nod so hard when you read. That's why you laugh so hard when you read. That's why you cry so hard when you read.


My bunny said that reading is a waste of time because he doesn't like to imagine a 'reality' which may or may not be the truth. Ironically, it is exactly the reason I prefer reading. I am not saying I don't like watching movies. In fact, I love it. I like the instant excitement. That being said, when you watch a movie, it is frustrating how you like the character but hate the actor so much, like how I like Tyler Durden as a character, but don't like the fact that Brad Pitt plays the role. Most of the time we bookworms say we like the book more than the movie, like Watchmen, and Fight Club, and God knows, maybe Fifty Shades of Grey! Once images are created, thousands of stories, of which there is one only belongs to me and me only, vanish in thin air but only one left - the director's. Only if you could realize how limiting your vision is, you'd let your mind run wild.

I am not trying to convince anybody that reading a book is better than watching a movie. What I am attempting to do, is to explain the mysterious minds of bookworms about their mysterious love of Reading in plain words. That's all.

"I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.