Most of my family members are really big readers. Growing up, my mom would read me piles and piles of books from the library every week. She says that I was the kid that she read to the most. That is why we believe I am still a big reader today.
My mom, Aunt Amanda, Grandma and Baba – my Russian grandmother – all share this love. When there are family gatherings, we tend to all sit down and talk about what we read recently and lend each other the book.
Recently the book that has been going around the circle is “Three Weeks With My Brother” by Nicholas Sparks. Normally I am the only one who reads his books because I swoon at the dramatic love story. For anyone who has read this one, you know it’s not his typical book.
It is all about him and his older brother, Mika, who travel the world together for three weeks. During this time they reflect back and tell stories about their lives.
I am not exaggerating when I say this book had me literally laughing out loud at the beginning of a chapter and then crying at the end of it.
If you look at the big picture of his life, it’s not that much different from a normal person who has had some tragedy happen.
The Sparks brothers faced poverty, death and a few other struggles together. Reading about it opened a whole new view of his books to me.
However, my Baba read this book last week and she hated it. She did admit that she skimmed it rather quickly because it was just like her life.
Baba says that she grew up in poverty and would run the streets and no one would be watching over her or her friends. That’s just how it was. It wasn’t anything that was out of the ordinary.
She also faced the tragedy of dealing with death at a young age and coping with that struggle.
It was because of this that she felt his life was nothing special and she didn’t want to read about it. But because she skimmed it so quickly, she missed the whole effect the book had.
She didn’t feel the need to cry. There was no laughing out loud during his funny stories. Then she also missed how he got his inspiration for his stories.
Nicholas Sparks does have a somewhat normal life. He isn’t an extremely blessed famous author that you should wish to be like. He has faced some horrible times in his life and that is where the struggles in his books came from.
Because of this book I have learned two simple lessons. If you don’t read a book fully, you will never get and enjoy the whole picture. It is as simple as that. Also, you should never just look at someone else and wish to be like them if you don’t know all about their lives.
KAT SHINDLEDECKER
