Saturday, October 4, 2014

Wonderland Weekend (Emotions)

Wonderland Weekend is a feature on my blog where I pick a topic about how stories take us to "another world." Each month I have a new topic and will write about it every weekend of that month or just one or two weekends (whatever I feel like/have time for/can come up with). I would love for you to join me, so feel free to write about this topic at any time throughout the month and link it back to me - just have fun with it!

I've also decided to do slightly broader topics and you can spin them however you wish. sooo...

Topic: How do books take us to another world by creating emotions in us? What are some emotions you do and don't like books to cause? Since Halloween is in October do you like scary books? Anything you want to write about scary books, books (or movies) that have to do with Halloween, or weird creatures. (However you want to take it). 
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(I'll talk about Halloween and scary books later this month)

Books can create so many emotions in readers, and those emotions can make us feel an array of things, or feel like the characters in a book. There is a wide spectrum of emotions from happiness, humor, sadness, surprise, shock, intrigue, suspense, joy, loss, inspiration, love, etc.

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A book isn't a good book if it doesn't make the reader feel something! You don't have to feel every emotion in every book you read (that would get pretty overwhelming not to mention redundant), but at least one or a couple emotions should thread their way through your senses while reading a book. If not, then chances are, you don't really care very much about the characters, or the plot for that matter. What is the point of  reading a book if  you don't care about what's happening? The more emotions a book can make me feel, the more I enjoy a book.

What emotions are provoked from a single book may vary from reader to reader, considering how everyone brings there own experiences with them when reading a book. Maybe you related to a certain book more  than your friend who just didn't get it, or maybe you cried every other chapter while someone else didn't shed a single tear.
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours” Alan Bennett

I don't like
~The only emotion a book doesn't want me to feel is extreme annoyance, dislike, or anger toward the book (occasional anger is okay).

~I also don't enjoy when a book has a hopeless tone to it. I understand that not every book has a happy ending, but if the tone of the entire book sounds hopeless, then I am not going to like it.

I love
~ Books that make me feel positive things such as love, hope, joy, inspiration, etc.

~ That moment when words fail me because I've felt so much through the course of a book.

Of course this is just the basis of emotions caused by books, but it's a start!

I've mentioned this before -
 I am an emotional and expressive reader. I laugh, smile, cry, smirk, raise a single eyebrow (my left one if you must know), scrunch my eyebrows together, purse my lips, etc., while reading all the time. Sometimes it's bad, especially considering that I read in public places often, such as in the middle of class and when my family is around. I'm sure it's very amusing for them! I've had people ask me if I'm okay or what's so funny, but they don't understand because they didn't read the whole book.

What do you think about books and emotions? Are you an emotional or expressive reader?

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