A Book Is a Door, A Book is a Sanctuary – Guest Post by Andrea Johnson

If you’ve been around the blogosphere for any length of time, and you love reading fantasy and science fiction, then no doubt you’ve run across Andrea Johnson and her site The Little Red Reviewer. I always enjoy Andrea’s reviews, because reading them feels like I’m sitting across from her in a coffee shop, having a chat. Her insights into SFF fiction are always spot on and entertaining, and I was very excited to hear that Andrea is going to be launching a Kickstarter in January! What would a blogger possible have to Kickstart, you ask? Well, Andrea is putting together a book of some of her favorite and most popular book reviews called The Best of the Little Red Reviewer!

I’m super excited to help spread the word about the Kickstarter—which goes live in January, so stay tuned! In the meantime, Andrea was kind enough to write a guest post, and I’m happy to share it with you today. Welcome to the blog, Andrea!

---

A book is a door, a book is a sanctuary

You ever read a book and feel transported?  Ever turn the page and find yourself in Narnia, or outerspace, or on the top of a mountain?  Part of the joy of reading is getting to explore places you’ve never been, historical places that don’t exist anymore, fantasy landscapes, or the far future. It’s called escapism because that’s exactly what’s happening. You’re escaping the world for a few minutes or a few hours. And it’s the most wonderful thing in the world!

All you have to do to open the door to a different place or a different time is turn the page. A book is a doorway to anywhere and everywhere.  Right now, there is a child in a library who is discovering this secret.  That child will grow up to be passionate about reading. Maybe you were that child?

Ok, so you open the door, you turn the page, you are joyously transported.  Now what?

Ahh, here’s the beauty of it. Because now it’s just you, and the story.   Ten thousand people have read the same book that you are reading right now. A thousand people might be reading the same book at the same time that you are reading it.  But this is your reading of it, and your experience.

You’ll read in the story in one way, your friend will read it in another way, you’ll relate to one character, your friend will relate to a different character.  You will have your own, private, experience with whatever book you’re reading.  Within those pages, you are safe from the world, it’s just you and your experiences and your opinion.  Authors like to say that fiction is a safe place to tell the truth, but for us readers, books are our sanctuary.  Within that sanctuary there is no room for judgement, no room for hate, not a cubic centimeter available for the all the things that make the world terrible. There is only room for the story, and you.

I figured out years ago that when I get into books, I really, really get into them.  I mourn dead characters, I feel bad about talking about characters because what if that person didn’t want me sharing their secrets? I’m patient when a character doesn’t want to tell me something.  Events that didn’t happen in world that doesn’t exist hit me like a ton of bricks. You know that piece of music that gives you chills?  It’s like that, except it happens when I’m reading a really good book.

Maybe I’m taking escapism too far. Maybe I’m just lucky enough to be reading the really, really good books.  But when I read them,  when I open that door, I experience something in that sanctuary.  I find myself in a safe place where I can let go of whatever is annoying me that day, I can let go of stress, I can let go of it all. And escape into a story.

People keep asking me what “The Best of Little Red Reviewer” is. Is it fiction? Is it commentary? Is it essays? What is it?   The Best of Little Red Reviewer is the work I am most proud of creating over the last eight years.

The Best of Little Red Reviewer showcases what I experienced within the sanctuaries of books.  This book of reviews is a viability test as well: can my experiences exist outside the internet?

You might not agree with my commentary on books you read. You might wonder if we were even reading the same book.  There might be phrases or metaphors or whole paragraphs in my reviews that don’t mean anything to you, or that you downright disagree with.  That’s ok.  As long as you keep reading, as long as you keep opening those doors and entering those sanctuaries and experiencing what’s inside, it’s all good.

This January, I’ll be kickstarting The Best of Little Red Reviewer.  It’ll be a whole new doorway.

---

ANDREA JOHNSON has run the book review blog Little Red Reviewer (littleredreviewer.wordpress.com) since 2010, where she has published over 400 reviews covering all sorts of science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between.  Andrea is the creator of #VintageSciFiMonth blogging event, and she has organized read alongs and blog tours.  She was a contributor to SFSignal, and is currently the author interviewer at Apex Magazine. Andrea and her husband live in a college town in Michigan, and their home looks like a library that exploded.   In January of 2019, Andrea will be running a Kickstarter to print a book of The Best of Little Red Reviewer, which will include her best reviews.

You can read more about her upcoming Kickstarter here.