Dear authors
around the world:
When I
would receive a gift (no matter the size) my mother ruled that I was to write a
sincere thank you note to the person who had sent it. After every single
Christmas or birthday, you could find me seated at our kitchen table writing
notes, thanking relative after relative for the things they had graciously
given me. As High School Graduation came
around, I found myself writing thank you notes for many of the teachers and
other people whom had shaped me into the successful adult I am now. At the time, my cramping hand and I thought
we’d written a thank you note to everyone. Turns out, however, we missed an enormous
group of people.
You.
I don’t
even personally know an author, but I feel like I owe all of you my gratitude. You could honestly all be mega-douchebags,
but nonetheless, your books have given me a reason to be thankful for you.
Before I
learned to read for myself; beautifully illustrated picture books like “Time for Bed” written by Mem Fox and
illustrated by Jan Dyer would give bedtime a better twist than merely ‘counting
sheep’. When I first started to get the
handle of reading, my large collection of the Little Golden Books could keep me busy for hours.
Elementary
school not only brought about the education needed to read but also a library
full of books perfect for me. I trucked
through series of books that continued to strengthen my reading skill and widen
my imagination. I explicitly remember
falling asleep at night and picturing myself alongside Jack and Annie as we
discovered where the “Magic Tree House”
(by Mary Pope Osborne) would take us next.
My fellow
classmates and I cherished reading time in class, even though the lot of us
could read on our own. We all listened
intently to the intense adventures of “The
Boxcar Children” by Gertrude Chandler Warner and then quickly relived the
scenes on the playground with pinecones and woodchips as our props. Never have I heard so much giggling than when
my 4th grade teacher read chapter 10 of “The BFG” by Ronald Dahl. We
were all asking our parents to make Frobscottle
that day after school.
The moment
I went from merely a ‘fan’ of books to a full blown book nerd was when I picked
up J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone”. If my imagination
wasn’t in full swing before reading this book, it was ready for total world
domination afterwards. Not only that, I
cherish the connection the series gave me to my father as we raced each other
to finish the series (I won of course). As
each movie came out, we’d have our daddy-daughter date consisting of a meal and
a movie. I even talked my dad into going
to the midnight release for the final installment. We finished with a bang.
My reading
habits took off from there. By reading those
seven books, I learned just how much power a single book could hold and I thank you for creating them.
Thank you for creating places that bring
about the same solace and security a hug might give. With the mere turn of a page I can be driving
down a freeway standing on the bed of a truck with Charlie in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by
Stephen Chbosky or sipping ‘bottled stars’ at a five-star restaurant in Amsterdam
with Hazel and Augustus in John Green’s “The
Fault in Our Stars”.
Thank you for crafting places that can bring
out my undying imagination and curiosity.
Places like “The Hunger Games”
arena (written by Suzanne Collins) or the abandoned church in “The Outsiders” (written by S.E.
Hinton) continually stretched my mind to paint places with just simple
words.
Thank you for molding characters that became
some of my best teachers. Leading women
like Tris from “Divergent” (by
Veronica Roth) and Tess from “The
Infernal Devices” (by Cassandra Clare) taught me that being headstrong and courageous
aren’t characteristics to hide. Likewise,
Jenny from the “Jenny McGrady Mysteries”
by Patricia H. Rushford taught me to never give up on a goal or a dream;
even when all possible obstacles are against you.
Thank you for inventing characters that I can
lean on. When it seems like the world is
against me, Craig from Ned Vizzini’s “It’s
Kind of a Funny Story” is there to tell me I’m not alone in my thoughts and
that reaching out to someone for help shouldn’t be frowned upon. Rainbow Rowell taught me how to conquer
obstacles and fears when I am feeling stepped-on and used with her introverted
character Cath from “Fangirl”.
And
finally, THANK YOU for giving me
hope. Writing a book is tough work, but
you did it! Sitting here in the café of
Barnes and Noble, I can see shelves on shelves of books that are written by
people I’ve come to look up to, and I hope one day a book with my name on the
outside and my words on the inside sit among them. The fact that you reached your goal has given
me hope that I might one day reach mine.
This thank
you note might seem ‘nerdish’ or ‘obsessive’, but I felt moved to tell as many
of you as possible how thankful I am for your work. As I like to tell people: “There are worse
things I could be addicted to.”
Thank you so much for giving me and all the
other readers out there places and people and scenarios that can take us away
from troubles and worries. Thank you
for bringing us paradise when we can’t afford a plane ticket or take time for
such an adventure. And finally, thank you
for giving us ‘little writers’ hope and faith to achieve our dreams.
With all the respect in the world,
Lizzy Cox
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