Yo, it’s me again! Long time no see! Missed me, huh?
This month we’re gonna talk about books and reading. Do you like reading books?

In the past, reading books was the only way to get some information that you needed. Also, it was the only way to enjoy your time at home, when it was too cold to go out or when you were sick. There were no computers at that time, and calling your friend was not an option. What else could you do, but sit down in front of a nice fire, lean back¹ in your favorite chair and read a great book. Don’t you agree?
I personally love reading books. A book is always better than a movie, because you can imagine everything – the place, the characters and all the situations, while when you are watching a movie, it’s all prepared and handed to you on a silver platter. An entire book cannot be put in a movie – it’s physically impossible. The movie would take days to act out all the situations the author dreamed up.
Books also force a reader to think. You have to torture the brain a bit for the sentences to make sense so that they can fit together and make a story.
Books also can give you new ways to look at life. When you read more and more reactions to certain situations, you learn which is the best way to react to things that may affect you. At least that has happened to me, and I am glad that I read so many books. When you read certain kinds of genres, like detective stories, your sense of logic starts to bloom² as well, and you can easily put things together and understand them. When you read a lot of books, your vocabulary increases as well, and you seem more intelligent (because you are). There are many genres of books. There’s romance, comedy, parody, horror, sci-fi , fantasy and more.

What genres do you like?
I personally like horror and fantasy books. I believe there’s something out there, which COULD be waiting for us and the fact just thrilles me every time I go out. I guess…I don’t like the ordinary.
Romances are good as well; I like the ones written for my age. Teen romances are the best. The adult ones are very poorly written, believe me. Most of the time, it isn’t love. It’s something else.
A book that would catch my interest should be funny as well. I love the feeling when I burst out laughing and people around me don’t have a clue to what I’m laughing at. It gives you the “I’m different” feeling.
Hm, that’s a tough book to find, huh? A fantasy horror romance with a bit of comedy. Huh, good luck finding that one!
Not a lot of teenagers are reading books nowadays. They don’t have a lot of free time. Most of the time, they are outside with their friends, or studying or playing on the computer. Why try to read big old books when you have the Internet where you can simply type what you need and get the information within seconds. Why bother with something like a book?
A lot of my friends like to read books. I like that, because it opens more conversations.

What kinds of books do you like? Do you have a favorite author?
Don’t be shy to write about it. Talk about your favorite parts in books in class.
Teens don’t always just stay with reading books; they might want to write their own stories as well. It doesn’t have to be an original idea; they can write so called fan-fictions as well. It’s about picking out your favorite book, band or film, and change the plot of the book or film, or create some situationsf that your favorite band might be in. Most of the time, it’s about picking out your favorite character (mostly male) and pairing them up with your made-up character; most of the time the character resembles³ you, and you get together with your favorite male. The endings are happy a lot of the time. You can read these fan fictions on a lot of sites, where there are millions of them. Some are good, some are bad, some are clichéd and some are really corny⁴. So corny actually, that it would make you gag⁵.

Do you write stories? If yes, do you post them online? Where? Do you write them in Slovak or English? Do any of your friends know that you write stories?
I’ll get to you next month! Until then, stay strong! Don’t let anyone bring you down!

Ňuňu

VOCABULARY: 1oprieť sa – opřít se; 2prekvitať – rozkvétat; 3podobať sa – podobat se; 4zastaralý; 5obracať sa žalúdok – obracet se žaludek