Okay, so I totally tend to be one of those people who compare her life to the books she reads, and sometimes it's not even that much of a comparison but there has been some sparks between me and books I've read... and I decided to talk a little bit about them.
And I've also managed to convince my friend Kylie@The List Maker's Book Reviews, to come along and do it as well - we are still working out frequency and stuff, btw - and we hope to talk about the way books have influenced, helped or simply resonated with both of us in every which way.
STORY OF MY LIFE #1 - On Princesses and Sisters
Princesses are common in books, you can pretty much always count on one or two princesses being in need of rescue at any given time, but there are also other type of princesses: the ones who do the rescuing.
Now, other than being my dad’s little princess (with my sister being the big princess, since she’s a full year older than me), I’ve never thought I had much in common with the princesses of the book realm; but that all changed when I read The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine a few years ago.
The Two Princesses of Bamarre tells the story of two sisters who love each other greatly but are opposite as two people can be. Meryl, the oldest, is a bundle of energy, always brave and always the protector of her little sister Addie. When the tables turn and is Meryl who needs rescuing, Addie must find the courage that was there all along and put aside her fears.
Having a sister myself, I know it’s the oddest of bonds; there is no one I love more than my sister and also no one who can piss me off as much or as fast. I might bitch about her but I bristle at the first sign of danger around her. It has always been this way, and I have also always been the cowardly sister, the one who doesn’t like to go out of her comfort zone and afraid of things that ‘might happen’, while my sister Boo has always been the one with the huge personality and bossy attitude.
We are as different from each other as Meryl and Addie are, but I also think we are just as close. There are things I don’t understand about her, things I only forgive because she is my sister and there had been times when I have loved her more than what I have liked her, but I would kill, maim and deliver the apocalypse for her, because that’s what sisters do.
There are many things I liked about Addie and Meryl but the one I always remember is the way Addie describes the difference between she and Meryl toward the end, after she had found her own courage:
When I read that it was like a little light bulb went on, on top of my head in true cartoon style. Even will all the differences – like the fact I have never battled a dragon and my sister knows squat about sword fighting – I could see Boo and me in that little phrase and it was oddly liberating and it made all the difference between my sister and me, even if she doesn’t know.
“I finally saw the real difference between Meryl and me, truer than the difference between cowardly and brave. She wanted to battle monsters for the adventure of it. I wanted to defeat them for the peace that would follow.”
That was cool AND interesting, AnimeGirl. Loved it!
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