{"id":2629,"date":"2013-10-04T00:48:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T08:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2629"},"modified":"2013-10-04T01:00:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T09:00:48","slug":"put-your-faith-in-books-at-sea-09292013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2629","title":{"rendered":"Put Your Faith In Books \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [09\/29\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Once<\/a>Picture a little girl in glasses and braids
\nA little starched dress, at the end of the corridor
\nShe\u2019s holding to the wall, waiting for the bell to ring
\nPraying for the day to end
\nForcing herself to go back to her class again
\nHearing her mother\u2019s words: Put your faith in BOOKS. ~ Fame, The Musical<\/i><\/p>\n

Dragons like to be read to.<\/p>\n

I have discovered this over the years.\u00a0 There are two things that calm the hissing voices in the shadows of the world: music, and the written word.<\/p>\n

I know many people who don\u2019t read, some of the very closest people to me don\u2019t read. I sometimes wonder if my ability to fall into a story comes from growing up an only child; since there weren\u2019t even any other kids on my block I learned pretty quickly to find friends in pages instead of the real world. That was something my mother always felt badly about, but something I\u2019ve always thanked her for. I can\u2019t imagine what my life would be like if I didn\u2019t have my paper escape.<\/p>\n

This comes to mind now because \u2013 with the increased work hours (which granted are only for this cruise and which I did take on voluntarily, more the fool I) I find I have little time to escape anywhere else.\u00a0 I find that at the moment I\u2019m not able to give much energy to the dance floor, my eyes are too tired to sew and my mind doesn\u2019t want to focus on television, but somehow, I can still focus on the fine print of a novel. So I read. A Lot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often wondered if the reason I read so much is to see the world as I would like it to be; not so much in the \u2018love conquers all\u2019 fairy tale sense, that would be foolish, but in the sense of some things still existing that just don\u2019t seem to in the so called \u2018real\u2019 world, like chivalry and restraint and\u2026I don\u2019t know, sometimes I think characters in books have more passion for life than real people. Perhaps that\u2019s why I model so much of my own attitude on theirs.<\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s because I read so much that I can write. A lot of people don\u2019t really understand that. Though there is a factor in the whole writing thing that is completely beyond my control, one of my favourite fantasy author\u2019s is quoted as saying that he found out at a young age that he was<\/i> a writer<\/p>\n

Notice I didn\u2019t want to say I decided I want to be a writer. I was a writer. If you are a writer you will write, whether you want to or not.<\/i><\/p>\n

So there\u2019s that. But a lot of the reason I am able to channel words so well is because I\u2019ve been taught by so many greats who went before me. I\u2019ve visited Manderlay, Wonderland (a truly disturbing place, one must wonder what Caroll was thinking), Thistleswait Manor,\u00a0 Never (Never) Land, the South of France, the hills of Tuscany (long before I set foot there), and I think I\u2019m a permanent resident at Thornfield Hall. And these days of course, Winterfell, King\u2019s Landing, Moorea and whatever other far distant other worlds I can get my hands on. At the moment I\u2019m ensconced somewhere in a version of the holy land that drips incense and intrigue more than it does sacred thoughts.<\/p>\n

When I was growing up my mum used to say I reminded her of A Little Princess\u2019 <\/i>\u00a0Sara Crew \u2013 always looking for new books to gobble; if I did something wrong the punishment was never taking away my television time, or my computer (I didn\u2019t even know what a computer was back then) it was cutting my reading time. Whatever it was I\u2019d done, I learned never to do it again quickly.<\/p>\n

The thing is, the friends you make in books never let you down. They\u2019re always, always, there at the end of a long day, waiting to see you through, they don\u2019t disappear, they don\u2019t break, and they don\u2019t ever leave you behind or forget about you. A book will never leave you behind for a better option. And that\u2019s not<\/span><\/b> a statement to or against anyone in particular (because I know I run the risk of some people taking it that way), it\u2019s just something I\u2019ve learned over the years, and I think perhaps it explains a lot about me in the long run\u2026<\/p>\n

Put your faith in books, that’ll protect you
\nPut your faith in books, and a mind of your own
\nNeither charm nor looks
\nWill make them respect you
\nYou must learn to stand alone… <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picture a little girl in glasses and braids A little starched dress, at the end of the corridor She\u2019s holding to the wall, waiting for the bell to ring Praying for the day to end Forcing herself to go back … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,48,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-med-2013","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-Gp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2643,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions\/2643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}