When you study literature in a traditional class, you’ll learn to look for a book’s theme. Theme is what a book means, but it’s pretty specific and not really about what you see in a book.
What I actually want to talk about here is figuring out what a book means to you, and that might be more complicated than figuring out the theme for a literature test at school.
Here’s an example:
A really important book to me when I was a kid was Harriet the Spy. Gradesaver.com tells me that “this book is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel.”
And they’re right. A coming-of-age story is a classic style of novel in which a young person struggles through a difficult part of life where they have to make some choices and grow up a bit.
But as a kid, I didn’t care about that at all. What spoke to me in this book was the way that Harriet was so often alone. See, I had four siblings and it was hard to be alone. So I craved being alone, and spent a lot of time trying to find places where I could hide from that loud pack of kids at my house—four siblings plus all their friends!
So the first time I read about Harriet, I was sort of jealous. She’s a spy! She lives in a big city! She rides in a dumbwaiter (something we didn’t have in rural Michigan). She’s so cool!
But then bad things happen, and Harriet has to struggle to get through them. The other kids turn on her. Then she has to be alone… and she doesn’t like it. I learned a lot from that. It gave me a perspective on my life that I wouldn’t have had before, even though Harriet’s life was completely different.
Meaning is connection
When I say that you should try to find meaning in books, I don’t mean that you should figure out how to pass a test by identifying the theme. I think that you should try to connect with a book in a personal way.
Why?
Well, for one thing, it’s fun to connect with books. Even when a book is about a fantasy world as different from yours as possible, you can find things in it that feel familiar and right to you. That’s a connection, and it feels great.
For another, when we connect with books, we read them more deeply. Even when you have to read a book for school, or your parent makes you read a book that looks boring to you, trying to connect with it will help you get through it and find out what other people might see in it. If you fight the connection, you won’t notice as much.
And finally, connecting with books helps us learn about ourselves and other people. And I’m going to admit something to you: learning is something you should strive to do your whole life! If you learn something new every day, you’re going to be one lucky person.
How do you find meaning?
For some of you, finding meaning might be easy. But for others, you might be thinking, “I don’t care what it means—I just want to be entertained.”
Being entertained is a great reason to read, too. But personally, I think that if you consider why you find a book entertaining, you might get at something bigger.
Here are some types of meaning you might look for in a book:
- A book may teach you specific information, which helps you understand the world more
- A book could make you feel less alone in a problem you face
- A book could make you feel better about difficult issues humans face
- A book could help you understand other people more
- A book could help you understand yourself
Meaning is personal
Don’t expect that everyone else will find the same meaning in a book. One of the best things about reading is that it’s all yours. No matter what someone else tells you is important about a book, you can always cherish the personal meaning you get from it.
Harriet taught me that being alone is fine, but learning to get along with other people is important, too. And I’ll never forget that personal meaning I took from one of my favorite books.