Meet the Reviewer

Hello!

Chances are if you're reading this, then you know me. You know that I love to write; that I have the capability to go into long, detailed descriptions with just about anything; a capability I use often. I love posting reviews. It's funny though, because I never, ever post reviews on products I've purchased, despite the emails I've received trying to tempt me. Even if the product is satisfying, I've never put my satisfaction into words, in hopes that my opinion of said purchased product will influence another customer into bringing that item into their life. I was just always too lazy for that. But I have found time to review much different things in the past: CDs I couldn't wait to buy, specials on TV I couldn't wait to see; that sort of thing. I don't think anyone really cares to hear my opinion, so I'm not sure where the great need to write out my thoughts came from, but it just seems like I thoroughly enjoy getting them out.

Because of that, I started this blog. This blog will only be dedicated to books and only books, my true passion in life. I love to read. You can say it's something to the liking of an obsession, but it's such a beautiful one that calling it an obsession almost sounds wrong. Obsession makes it sound sinful. Reading books is my escape; my sole escape from the world. Everyone has one. Some people are blessed with physical places they can go to, to clear their head. My room is technically my sanctuary; my little corner of the world, but in my room is where I get to read. I can't read in any other room in my house because it's oftentimes way too noisy. I need complete silence when reading - well, almost. I like to have some kind of fan-like noise in the room, whether it be from my heater or humidifier (which I purchased solely for the soft humming sound). In my room, in the corner, on my bed, is where I've experienced so many different lives. With just two hands and a book pulled wide open, I have lived so many different lives and seen through so many different pairs of eyes. This is reading to me: becoming somebody else for a couple hundred pages or so. Why do people act the way they do? Why should we not judge people? Reading books and living through different characters has educated me on life lessons: do not judge someone by one poor action on their part. We do not know how this person thinks, or what they're going through. The stories I've read in books, they're all very different, and just like in the real world, no one person is the same. We all have our reasons for why we do what we do. Stories give you a perspective, an insight, into the minds of people who have sinned so badly they disgust themselves; stories that take you deep into their emotions, raw and completely uncensored. In my experience, books don't censor people's insanity. They burrow deep at the root of it and dig through it. I love novels that tear at your emotions. I especially love novels that go heavy into detail with their thoughts and emotions at one specific moment in time. When so-and-so touches so-and-so's skin, their brain goes fuzzy and their thoughts are hazy. When I'm reading this, I'm so drawn into the book, I trick myself into thinking I felt it, too.

I cannot accept the possibility that I'm just plain crazy, and that books don't affect people like they affect me. Perhaps I've taken reading to the "next level," but I'm positive there are addicted readers who enjoy devouring a thick novel as much as me. I guarantee there are people who get lost in bookstores, wide-eyed, scanning the shelves, picking up book after book, reading the summaries and then deciding that the summary isn't good enough, because sometimes the summaries just plain suck and are nothing like the book itself, so you flip through pages, getting brief bits and pieces of the lives inside the pages. And it only takes that to decide if you want to buy it or not; do you want to take this book home and experience this adventure? Sometimes you leave it there, and that book is brought back to mind next time you visit that store again. I'm sure that there are readers who, like me, like to have a book with them at all times. And then there are readers, like me, who read when they need to feel. When they need to be jolted alive, to feel something, because sometimes it feels like they're numb. A book is a great escape in that aspect, as well. It's impossible to feel numb when you read a chapter that makes your throat tighten with sadness.

I'll even go the extra mile here and admit that I get sad when the book comes to an end. Unless the book wasn't all that great and the ending is predictable, then it's okay, but usually, there's a bit of sadness when I close that book for good and the story's over. I usually predict the ending line in a book to be a tear-jerker, or to at least put that pressure in the bottom of my throat. I just love to read stories. I love to see them begin, usually pleasantly, the characters' lives very neat, and then to watch it all unravel. I love to watch stories build, break apart, and then miraculously come together. I love to see the disaster in the characters; the pain, the sadness, the misery and the triumph. I love to see them struggle and then come alive. But I hate saying goodbye to them.

Books mean that much to me. So even though I'm not a skilled enough writer to pick apart a published author's novel, I have my opinions. I've lived these books; I take my reading seriously. You can trust that I keep an open mind when it comes to reading new novels, which is why I greatly prompt you to toss out some suggestions for me, if there's a novel you're interested in reading or have read and want my opinion. I'll read almost anything.

CURRENTLY READING: "My Sister's Keeper." I actually found this book somewhere in an aisle in our grocery store years ago and wanted to buy it. I'm glad I didn't, because I was around ten or so, and this book is certainly not the material I had in mind at that age. I wouldn't have took very well to all the discussion about medical health and disease. But at seventeen, almost eighteen, I'm glad to have finally gotten my hands on this book again. Turns out my mom bought it a while ago. I'm a little more than halfway through it, and it has me captivated. I can't keep it down for very long. Throughout the day, I keep returning to it. Review is coming up soon! (I have not seen the movie.)

Love, Carrie The Nutty, Obsessive Bookworm.
xo.