My A-Ha moment... never judge a book by its Title!

Every year I find myself coming back to my blog with the promise of writing more, but only to end up shattering the illusions of me being a blogger. Uggh. Such a disappointment to the blogging world!
Tbh, I do write. I start up a lot of blog posts, but they all remain in the shadows of the drafts and will never reach the spotlight of my blog. Tragic! But, this is something I am still working on.

So, without further ado, let me share about my recent big aha moment. If you have been following me on my Instagram Page, you must be familiar with my love for reading. I, recently, came across a blog post Three reasons to re read your favourite books, by Amber, which triggered me to scrutinise my book collection. I believe that all readers are guilty of saying "I'll re-read my favourite books" only to find ourselves, opting for something from the endless TBR piles, because "why re read something I have read before when I can read something new" and enjoy the whole excitement of discovering new characters, new plots, new themes. Life is so short, and there are soooo many books out there, that will remain unread. 

But thanks to Amber from the Literary Phoenix blog, I decided to re-read a book. But not a book that I liked or something I was comfortable with. I chose that book, that I always looked with disdain and spoke about in a very condescending manner. Because to me, it was a disappointment, with a title that betrayed my expectations. I am here talking about "Le Temps des Amours" by Marcel Pagnol, which was a posthumous publication of his autobiography. Why so much hate for "Le Temps des Amours", if you would ask me. 

First of all, my issue was the title itself. It was misleading. When I first read it, I thought it was about a teenage romantic book, while in reality, it had little to almost nothing to do with romanticism. My expectations crumbled right there.

Secondly, this book, I did not go out to the bookstore to buy it on my own will. It was imposed. Had I not been asked to read this book as part of a group assignment for my Alliance Française classes back in the days, it would have still been there on bookshelf of the bookstore. And hey, I was 13 years old! Don't judge me harshly. You know, as a book-loving teenager, I used to relish books from the Coeur Grenadine Series, Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew Files, Christopher Pike's books or even the Secret Seven series,... and so, you see, Marcel Pagnol did not fit into that category. 

But now, as a 30 years old, "supposedly" grown-up adult, I feel that I made the right decision to re-read "Le Temps des Amours". I believe that I failed to understand the book because I could neither understand the childish pranks pulled out by Marcel and his friends nor identify with the characters nor relate to the first love of Lagneau. I went to an all-girl secondary state school and I was myself a boring person, as far as I remember. Therefore, I could not associate myself to it. Conversely, when I re read it, I felt a little more connected to Marcel and his friends; I was able to relate to part of what the author lived through my fiancé and his friends' stories of their school days. They would tell me about how they used to pull pranks, their first encounters with girls, which was similar to that of Lagneau with a modern touch, instead of sending love notes, they had to text using the parents' cellphones. 

And re-reading this book for me, has been insightful. For years, I hated it for not being what the title said, for not being something I could understand back then. I no more look at it with disdain. It just helped me realise how us, humans, form our opinions about things we do not understand. 

And I feel that if I re-read a book that I love, I would not have realised how much our perception changes over the years. The plot is the same, but we are not the same person we were when we first read it because there are so many factors in life, such as, personal experiences, books we read, our relationships, that has altered our ways of interpreting things. It deepens our understanding our understanding and build a different rapport with book, along with witnessing your personal growth as a person. And also, on the positive side, we get to relive the book through a fresh eye. 

So, my beautiful readers, I encourage you to keep on reading. Until my next post,