Aiculik,
I also take at least one book with me everywhere I go. It's interesting to note that your best friend, who does not enjoy reading, is a musician. I began playing classical music at the age of three, and, for most of my childhood, music was like oxygen for me.
I lived, breathed, completely existed for music. I didn't read nearly as much as I do now, simply because I didn't have the time to do so. I was unaware of how much I missed through literature because I had a relatively limited exposure to it. It is impossible to practice a musical instrument for 9-10 hours a day and find time for anything outside of the most essential things--schoolwork, eating, and sleep.
Music is still crucial to my life. But not more essential to it than books.
I agree it is normal for people to alter their behavior to be accepted by others, though I don't always agree that it is necessary. I don't have a partner, though I live with my mum and I definitely care what she thinks of me. As for friends, they know I am highly individualistic and I don't honestly care that some of them view me as "eccentric." Thankfully, they seem to like me anyway
. What I find is that people care much less whether or not we share their opinions than whether or not we appreciate them, as people. Thus, I let the most important people in my life know how I feel about them frequently.
In regard to compromises, I am not very good at them. When a person has *completely* different interests than mine, I'm not really eager to spend a great deal of time around them. Time is a limited commodity, after all. I do, of course, question my own opinions. In fact, I change them frequently. But I always have to be the one to decide to change them. I am not persuaded towards a new way of thinking unless it makes sense to me personally. If this makes me appear to be opinionated, that is alright with me. I am the first to admit when I'm in the wrong, however, and I remedy the situation as soon as I am able to.
One of the reasons I read is also to see the world through another person's eyes. I may
find some truths in books without consciously looking for them. I realize that novels, short stories, and plays are fiction. But every now and then a solution to a problem may pop up in something I read. I agree that the solutions to our problems are within ourselves--this ties in with the power of the subconscious mind which is far greater than most of us are cognizant of. What a book can do (yes, even fiction) is make us more aware of some difficulty we may be in the midst of or it can make us realize that we have not yet overcome a painful situation of the past. We can receive ideas for how to handle things through fiction. We can work through issues via a character in a book, for instance.
By the way, I love how you refer to reading as "discussion with the author." That is exactly the way I see it, too. Thank you for affording me the opportunity to discuss my thoughts and feelings on literature with you, Aiculik. I was hoping that there would be people here who felt as I do about it.
Titania
"Life must be a constant education.
People must learn everything, from
speaking to dying."
~Gustave Flaubert