A Little Bit of Magic

There is so much power hidden in books. With each new page, a little magic is released, building a fantastic world out of only twenty-six letters. Just one chapter can transport you onto Baker Street where Holmes and Watson mull over the most recent sensational crime. A few paragraphs can carry you across the boundaries of time and reality where you fight along the Starks against the treacherous Freys. And one sentence, “All was well”, can end an era of spells and horcruxes. You never know where you will end up with a flip of the page, allowing you to transplant yourself into someone else’s world for an hour or two.

My dad lives and breathes this escape from reality. You should see our basement. There is one whole wall of bookshelves piled lined two-deep with books. And not just any kind of books: Sci-Fi books. Some of these novels defy the Science Fiction stereotype and actually do have an enigmatic plot or hero. William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Orson Scott Card’s Enders Game carry some critical acclaim attached to their recognizable titles. To even non-science fiction readers, these books have “clout”.

Then there are those books that are a little less recognizable. Those books that have not won accolades from critics. Those books that, frankly, no one has really heard of. No one except my dad, that is. In my dad’s collection these books outnumber the others ten to one. There’s that book that is based on the video game HALO. I had honestly never heard of a book based on a video game until I discovered this gem hidden behind others of its kind including Runelords by David Farland and, I shudder, The Host by Stephanie Meyer.,

I know these books are not good because they have plots so forgettable my dad can’t remember if he’s read them. There have been countless times in airports when, in a last minute scramble, he buys the exact same book I saw on the shelf the week before. He has no idea. He reads it like it’s his first time, eagerly flipping pages throughout the entire flight. To be fair, I guess you can’t remember every spaceship explosion or alien invasion you’ve ever read, but still. Sometimes these repeats happen within the span of months.

But these books give my dad immeasurable joy. As a lawyer, he sits behind a desk all day, every day. I’m gonna be honesty, I don’t exactly know what he does, but I do know it involves a lot of paper work. And late hours. And travelling. Basically, he gets very little variation with his day, and even less rest. So, when he comes home with tired eyes I don’t think he wants to delve into War and Peace. That’s where these books come in (yes, even the one based on the video game).

Books like Neal Asher’s The Departure aren’t incredibly complex. The sentences are straightforward, the syntax is simple, and the words are short. Without these distractors, readers can focus solely on the plot. They can place themselves in the Argus Station, a space station where the Committee will soon have the power to edit human minds, but only by killing twelve billion humans on earth. To me, and probably every sane person on this planet, this situation does not seem relaxing in the least. But readers like my dad aren’t looking for relaxing. All they want is an escape.

And this world is definitely an escape. Instead of focusing on an overdue brief or difficult clients, my dad gets to see through the eyes of Alan Saul in his journey to destroy this dystopia. With each page, he gets deeper into this alter ego, until it takes over. That’s the power of books. They let you forget your true identity for a few hours and take on the role of anyone you want. Books allow you to drop your problems and leave them outside the pages. The pages open a magical world, building on the imagination to encapsulate the mind, and leaving a little bit behind when they finally shut.