Dear you,

When you get to know me, one of the first things you’ll find out is that I read. In all the good times and bad, I read. In fact just before we meet, I’ll be reading.

So I’m going to make this “finding me” thing real easy for you. Whichever city you’re in, hit all the bookstores. Look in all the dusty, old paper-scented corners and the neatly stacked new book shelves. Turn all the pages. Get to the very end.

You see that girl in the café reading a book with her glasses on and a small frown between her brows? Or that girl on the bus who is holding the book way too close to her nose because the print is too small? Or maybe that girl who is reading at a wedding because she doesn’t really know anyone else and this chapter is too good to let go of in the middle? They all are a version of me. Go on.

Ask me my favourite book. Ask me what story kept me up all night. Ask why I don’t listen to music when I’m reading. Ask me why I always have a book in my bag. Ask me which character I see myself in. Ask me the importance of this book and this book and this one. Ask me what’s happening to me while I read but ask me when I’m done. Ask me which writer I would stand in line for hours to meet and fangirl over. Ask me about that one scene in that one book. Come on. Sit cross-legged on the sofa with me and forget everything else. Just gush with me. Quote lines with me. Grow with me.

We haven’t really met yet. But through all the words that you and I have read, you in your home and I aboard a train, you in sneaking around at work and I at a traffic signal, you under a blanket with a torch and I on the stairs waiting for someone to open the door…through all these words, we have laughed, cried, sighed, felt and smiled together. We have met already. You just have to read between the lines.

All my love,
Me.