Two Roads Converged in a Wood…

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
By: Robert Frost Excerpt from: The Road Not Taken

Books are addictive.  I don’t mean the books you pick up because the cover looks interesting and maybe reminds you of some movie you saw or some kid you know.  I mean the kind where something in the title gets you wondering how in the world that story will pan out, or you feel a connection to the cover art that you can’t fully explain and before you realize it, you’re reading the jacket flap.

The next thing you know, you’re at the end of chapter one (still standing in the book store), and you know you have to have that book.  And not because it reminds you of someone, but because you feel like you could be in that book.  So you go home, reading it all the way there, and you still can’t put it down, until you hear someone is calling you.  You look at the clock and it reads 12:00am.  The voice turns out to be your mom, peeking in your room and whispering, “Are you still reading?  It’s the middle of the night!”

And the weirdest thing about it isn’t that you got completely lost in a book, it’s that you actually got so absorbed that you have to re-acclimate to the real world.  I remember looking up from one of the Harry Potter books in the wee hours of the morning and thinking, “Wow, this room looks vaguely familiar.”  Rowling did such a good job building Harry’s world that I truly felt a part of it.  The same was true when I finished the book Mockingbird and I missed Caitlin.  She seemed so real, it was hard to believe she wasn’t somewhere out there, living her life and still trying to make a friend.

Anyway, when the book is over (the very next day), it feels unnatural.  You want to pick it up and read what’s next, but there is no next.  There is rereading, but that can only offer so much.  So you start again.  Book store, library, book shelves in your classroom.  Hoping you’ll find another good fit, knowing it could never compare.

That’s when it happens.  You take a glance in the back of the classroom and the new kid is reading your book, and you figure by the chunk of pages, he must be around the part where the boy figures out that traveling back in time is the only option.  It is your favorite part.

You walk up to him and, unsure what to say to the boy who doesn’t talk, manage to mumble, “Hey.  I just finished that book.”

The kid looks up, like he’s trying to figure out what really made you come over.  “Oh,” he says.  “The sequel came out yesterday so I’m trying to finish this one today.”

You cannot contain your excitement.  “Sequel?!  Are you serious?”  You sit down across from him to see what he knows…and there it is.  You find yourself on the same path as someone else and the book comes alive again.  Not just because of the sequel, but because now you can relive any part of the book through the thoughts of someone else and it takes on a life of its own.

The way that books affect each of us is as unique as we are, and when we share these stories with others who have read them too, they become a strange connection.

A young kid can call out, “Let the wild rumpus start!” and most children will know exactly where it came from (and what to do!).  The same is probably true for the following-

“And the tree was happy.”
“I do not like them, Sam I Am.”
“Cheese touch!”
“Then everything was still. Absolutely still.”
“For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.”
“Trust me. I’m a genius.”
“Hearing voices no one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.”
“But you were some weird hybrid, man-goat THING, woah!”
“Have you hungered well today?”

When you read a book, you get to live through an experience you otherwise might not have known. When you meet others who’ve read the same book, you share that experience, even if the rest of your lives are completely separate.

I love the poem by Robert Frost, and I often think about the roads people travel in their lives, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. The last three lines of The Road Not Taken are perhaps some of the most famous lines ever written, and I can’t help but wonder- what if he was walking the other way along that path? What if the two roads were coming together into a common road that could be shared? What if that common road was a story that connected people from different places all over the world? What stories would those be? I would love to hear about books you’ve read that you think are roads worth traveling!

“Two roads converged in a wood, and I
I read the one you’d traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

If you want to comment on this page, you don’t have to leave any personal information. If you are a kid, I would love to know your first name in the “name” line followed by your age (just so I know who I am talking to), but no other identifying information!! Your first name will also help me address you if I have a response.

Happy reading!

Book Quotes in the order they appear:
Where the Wild Things Are By: Maurice Sendak
The Giving Tree By: Shel Silverstein
Green Eggs and Ham By: Dr. Suess
Diary of a Wimpy Kid By: Jeff Kinney
Magic Tree House By: Mary Pope Osborne
Winnie the Pooh By: A.A. Milne
Artemis Fowl By: Eoin Colfer
Harry Potter By: J.K. Rowling
Percy Jackson By: Rick Riordan
A Single Shard By: Linda Sue Park