The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams

She didn’t want to admit it to him, but she was excited to have no plans, so she could just curl up with her book.

I think we have all been a bit of Amir in our lives—self-centered, focused only on ourselves—and we have all been a bit of Hassan too, forgotten by the people we love the most.

There was something magical in that—in sharing a world you have loved; allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself.

“No. It was a happy time, and I can’t regret happiness.”

“Please try to remember that books aren’t always an escape; sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world; they don’t hide it.”

Ba always told me that sometimes when you really like a book, you need to read it again! To relive what you loved and find out what you missed before. Books always change as the person who reads them changes too.

“She doesn’t want to come out. Honestly, there’s no point in trying.” “No, my girl, there’s every point.”

Books show us the world; they don’t hide it.

She’d been so sure she’d been hiding away from life. But maybe Mr. P was right—she’d learned from the books too. She’d seen what people had been through—couldn’t she use that to cope too?

Through the reading list’s characters, she’d experienced injustice and childlike innocence, terror and unease, guilt and regret and powerful, everlasting friendship, a dalliance with Mr. Darcy (still Zac came to her mind when she thought about Pride and Prejudice), resilience, independence, and determination through the little women, the repercussions of trauma and the power of hope, faith, and community. And now, with A Suitable Boy, a new journey was just beginning.