Spoiler alert: This post reveals plot secrets from The Fault in our Stars.
Last night I lost someone dear to me. He was young, not yet 18 but cancer doesn’t always care for age, or for charm or for a life worth living. I spent only a week or so getting to know him, growing to love him. His name was Augustus Waters, a boy fashioned from runaway words and grand gestures, who taught me that there can be an infinity of life in only a few breaths of time, to see the vigorous green of grass, the beauty of a blind man tossing eggs at an ex-girlfriends car, and that the loss of limb doesn’t mean you lose the sparkle in your eyes.
I admit I never actually met Augustus. I only got to know him in my head, a voyeur on a life I wasn’t really a part of, eavesdropping on private conversations and inner thoughts. But I loved him, because really, you don’t have to meet someone for their story to touch or move or change you.
Today, I still think about Augustus because he was so special, but I have new lives to distract me. Lenke and Josef, who met and married before WWII, lost each other and have somehow, through the unexplainable beauty of the universe re-found themselves in the golden years of life.
I am just getting to know them, but soon, they will be rounded out and real enough to hug. I will learn their full story, and I will cherish them as I have Augustus and so many others. Because each book I read is a secret window into another world, with some fascinating people but often with ordinary ones, but always ones who capture my affection and my imagination.
I don’t know where I’d be without the comfort and joy of books. They are a gift in my life that sheltered me when I was young from the shouting in my house and the noises in my head. From the first, my palette was insatiable. Truly, I cannot be without a book. It makes me edgy, not to have a place I can run to and hide or fly or laugh or cry.
I open a book and I open my life. So thank you Madeline L’Engle , Judy Blume, Jonathon Tropper, Herman Hesse, Ayn Rand, Larry McMurtry, Jean M. Auel, V.C. Andrews, Sydney Sheldon, James Michener, Ken Follett, Jane Austen, John Green and so so so many others for creating stories and lives that inspire and engage me; for lifting me up and bringing me down just when I needed them, for making me see the world through someone else’s eyes, challenge my mind and grow my heart.
I know the sun will rise and fall on every life someday. We are just breaths of air, but pages are breaths filled with cinnamon and spice that draw you in and make you want to take their face in your hands and kiss them, whether on each cheek or full on the mouth.
Even when I turn that final page, I carry you all with me.
Augustus has died. Long live Augustus.
Icescreammama 
Sometimes hard to know what’s real, what’s not…it is all real!
in books, it’s all real to me.
What just happened?
i guess you have to read to understand. 😉
You’re a very talented writer. That is all.
thank you. that’s all i can hope to hear. 🙂
I mean it. That first paragraph especially blew me away.
sincerely, thank you.
Yes to everything you said here. I loved The Fault In Our Stars, and I loved Augustus, and Hazel, and even all four of their parents. And most of all, I love sinking into a book where the characters are vibrant and as real to me as any of the flesh and blood variety.
thank you. books are absolutely some of my closest friends.
What a beautiful tribute to reading. Isn’t it magical to be transformed into another world and to be so emotionally connected with complete strangers. You have the ability to create that world for others…continue writing!
This was a fantastic read, which is also a testament to your post’s premise. Very creative and very well written. Thanks for this.
so appreciate. thanks.
I read your post before heading to library. I picked up “The Fault in Our Stars.”
it’s a winner. i’ve been very into young adult books lately.
I guess I have been too. I’ve been addicted to “The 39 Clues” series and its follow-up. But someone checked out the next book and now it’s overdue!!! Thanks for giving me a suggestion while I bide my time.
i hope it didn’t ruin it for you. i really loved it. the first divergent was also a good read. although very different.
Really beautifully written.
thank you so much
This is wonderful! I love books too, so much. And you’ve mentioned many of my very favorite authors!
thank you. there are so many good ones, thank goodness!! although my brother-in-law read this and told me i needed to stop reading and start living! haha