WHY DO YOU READ?
Lately, I’ve been on a journey to become more conscious and mindful about life. It’s made me start asking myself deeper questions about why I do the things I do. One of those questions has been: why do I read? I only started reading this year, and I’ve realized something interesting. Whenever I read novels, I’m not always that interested in the actual story. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story, weird characters, betrayals, plot twists, all that good stuff. But what I’ve realized what I really enjoy when i read, and what actually keeps me reading, is good writing.
I love when a writer takes something totally ordinary and makes it feel magical. Or when they find the perfect words for a feeling you didn't even know you had — something vague, almost unconscious, until they name it. That's what I call aesthetic bliss. It's that moment when you read a sentence and just go, damn, that's such a beautiful way to put it. A good metaphor can make you look at something you've seen a thousand times like you're seeing it for the first time. It's basically an author finding the exact words for a feeling you've always understood in your head — but could never quite explain to anyone else."
I like it when an author can just take something ordinary and describe it in a way that makes it feel like the most magical shii ever, or when an author finds the perfect words or sentence to describe a vague almost unconscious feeling. All this is called Aesthetic bliss. Its that feeling you get when u read a sentence and say to yourself " wow ,that's such a beautiful way to put it", its like how a metaphor used in a book can make u look at something u have seen a thousand times over as it its the first time seeing it. Like when an author finds the perfect words to describe an abstract feeling that u understand in your head but can't transfer to someone else's head.
F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby has a part where he is describing a character as charismatic, he could've just said "the guy was very charismatic" , but instead he says " if personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures then there was something gorgeous about him, so heightened sensitivity to the promises of life". He essentially took something vague like how u can know someone who is just magnetic and has a charm to them, and made it almost tactile and as u read it, it just clicks with you. To me that's art , that's aesthetic, and it gives me bliss , and this is why i read.