what to do when your favorite book hurls itself off your nightstand.

Sometimes...
How do I say this?

Sometimes...
Okay, it's like this:

You really, really like a book. You love it. This book is practically your other Bible. You know every sentence in it by heart. You'd rather read it all day every day than go outside and do something else. This book takes you to magical places and makes you become something better than you ever imagined. It makes you happy.

And then your book burns. Or gets thrown out the window. Or decides "You know what? This reader isn't worthwhile anymore." and then stops letting you turn its pages. It jumps from its spot on your bedside table and commits a sort of book suicide.

But you've got the book memorized. You don't even need to read it to still know every word. Your love prevails because there has seriously been nothing good as this book.

Then you go to the bookstore and you see all the brand new, beautiful books. And you think "I don't want them." You know you should want them, but you don't. For Pete's sake, your book LEFT you. Of course it won't ever show up at your door and be like "Jokes! Love me again!" Nope! So just love the other books already!

But you don't love them.

And it has been eight months since your book left you two weeks before Christmas. You should stop reciting your favorite passages. Your friends no longer want to hear them.

You keep reading the backs of all the other books but you keep on looking for the same storyline: Summer Romance, penguins, carnivals, family, brown hair and kisses in the rain. You become so ashamed that you can't move on after eight whole months that you box up everything that reminds you of your book. This, you think, is the end.

You find that you don't have the book as memorized as you thought. Instead of quoting a scene word for word, you can only recall vague images. The book has become an idea and an ideal.

So what do you do when your life is like this?

1) Remind yourself (yet again) to stop saying the title of the book out loud or in your head.

2) Smile. Your life is beautiful.

3) Be patient. Because you're 17. You're stupid. Really, you are. Get over yourself. Also, realize how pathetic you are. This is a big step.

4) Don't go to the bookstore anytime soon. You're not ready, obviously. (Okay, go to the actual in-real-life bookstore. That's okay to go to.)

5) Think of hideous similes for how you feel. Like this one. Then you can laugh at yourself. That's the best advice: Laugh at yourself.

 

And pray. Actually, that's step number 1: Pray.