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A Blank Page is the Best of Friends
I unraveled the tiny slip of paper sitting snugly in my orange fortune cookie, half expecting a fortune — as its name properly suggests — but also half expecting advice like I normally receive after a delicious meal of Asian curried tofu with veggies. To my dismay, it was just a statement at best. But it seemed to resonate with me all evening, repeating itself in my mind like a catchy new song overplayed on the radio.
A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.
At first thought, I agreed that books are the best of friends, for they are always there for you, and they can be interpreted in almost any way you would like. They provide comfort and warmth, even giving you a sense of a new life, be it fantasy or not: when reading, it feels so deeply real. Books do not often fail you the way people do, for their words contain magical meaning beyond just the words on the surface. It is not often you can say the same of people. Right? Maybe I’m just cynical. Maybe I’m just a realist.
But the more I thought of this little quote stuffed inside an egg battered, dyed cookie, meant to give me inspiration, I felt betrayed by its meaning. A good book is NOT the same today and forever. Sure, the words are. But interpretations change over time. Have you ever read a book twice and gotten something differently out of it the second go-round, that perhaps…
