There are studies that claim that somewhere in the world there is a person that looks like us. This is very true especially if you have an identical twin. However, no matter how others look exactly like you or share the same interest, your fingerprints will never ever match. Fingerprints are like our tastes in books, when you think we have other perfect matches, a microscopic variation will appear.
How and why is that?
To answer that, we need to think that books are like shoes. There are different kinds of shoes– there’s the dress shoes, tennis shoes, chucks, high heels, and so on. For books, genres exist (Romance, contemporary, etc.) Some people like collecting tennis shoes because they are always on the go, and they like the way they look (and yes, tennis shoes can be very classy). On the other hand, some people like collecting tennis shoes, because they play tennis. When these two people meet, instant friendship could immediately spark. They can talk about how they love the material of tennis shoes used by this particular brand and other topics regarding tennis shoes. When they reach the topic why they used tennis shoes, an argument will happen– the other person might say that tennis shoes are solely for playing tennis.
Why am I saying this?
People need to learn that people love reading for different purposes. Let’s not even get to the escapism and such and such (those are already given). What I am trying to say is wee need to respect others why they like a certain book. For example, you might hate Twilight by Ms. Stephenie Meyer because Bella is the stupidest character you’ve ever seen, so now you need to hate on other people who enjoy the book. But what if those people enjoy reading characters who make stupid and reckless decisions? What if they love books with super flawed character?
I have experienced personally and seen readers (and non-readers) bully readers because of what they like to read. We don’t have to force ourselves to like what others like too, but I believe respect should be mandatory. If you don’t want to read the book that other like that you this is “stupid,” just say you have no interest in reading the book and then move on. We should stop putting other people down because of what they like to read. Other people is not obligated to like reading the way you like it. remember, we have our own “shoe prints.” Shoe prints are our reading fingerprints, we might think we have an identical one, but a slight variation will always happen.
Fearless Kurt 