I’m a really obsessive passionate person. One of the things I’ve always been passionate about is, obviously, reading. But sometimes reading can make me obsess over other things in life. These are some books where I inadvertently learned about something and then just never stopped thinking about it.
The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
This book is great, btw. It’s well written and interesting and funny. But I learned about synesthesia. And I’m o b s e s s e d with synesthesia. Basically, synesthesia is a confusion of senses. So colours have scent, or numbers have sounds, or words have colours. This book is focused on synesthesia, and it’s so interesting. The character with synesthesia sees colours for every sound. He then judges people based off the colour of their voice. So untrustworthy people and mechanical voices have steely grey voices. The main character has a mint-chocolate-chip voice. It’s so cool!
I myself have very, very (very) minor synesthesia in that certain numbers have colours (3 is lime green, 6 is grass green, and 7 is sky blue). But it’s nowhere near as intense as actual synesthesia. I truly believe that this book is one of the reasons I pursued psychology, mainly so I could continue to learn about synesthesia. I just think it’s the most interesting thing ever!!!! and I have this book to thank for that.
CHERUB: Divine Madness by Robert Muchamore
The CHERUB series is a series about kids who are spies, which was literally my dream when I was 10-13 (and still is tbh) so I was instantly hooked on these books. But Divine Madness deals with religious cults, and my obsession with religious cults has not stopped. They’re just so interesting??? Like why do people join them? Why do people whole-heartedly believe in the things they do? Idk but I love learning about them. This book was the first one to introduce me in an accessible way to cults, and I’ve been learning about them ever since.
Hazedย (Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers #14)ย byย Franklin W. Dixon
This book is (obviously) about hazing at a private school. It was the first time I’d read about hazing, the first time I’d ever actually heard about it. The book is short but intense and I remember devouring it. I’ve been interested in hazing ever since, again mainly because of the psychology behind it. Why do we feel like people need to earn their way into our groups? Why do we go to such great lengths? IDK but I want to learn more!
So those are the books that gave me real-life passions. Are there any similar books for you?
xx
Synesthesia is so special and I see that a lot of YA novels start to include it ! :O
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I love that it’s becoming more popular!
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OMG I didn’t know about the word hazed until I read this post ๐ but it really is an interesting topic!
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Synesthesia is something that I didn’t know about before, but now must learn about. Sounds fascinating. I wonder how it was ever discovered in the first place?
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It’s so interesting! I’m not sure how it was originally discovered, but I’m glad it was haha
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I’d heard of synesthesia before, but didn’t know that it had a name until now! Although, I should have figured it had a name… Most everything has a name….
When I was younger and read “My Side of the Mountain,” it made me pretty obsessed–er, I mean passionate–about survival and wilderness skills, and also falconry. They’re still keen interests of mine, even after all this time.
Great post!
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Thank you! Synesthesia is so cool!
My brother read that book and it also helped him remember how much he loved the wilderness and survival skills!
Thanks for reading! ๐
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Ahh yes I totally get what you mean about Divine Madness!! I love that book and it made me so curious about cults- I must have spent loads of time researching them after that! Awesome post!!
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Cults are so interesting! Thanks so much! ๐
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I know right! You’re welcome ๐
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It’s not exactly the same, but reading a lot of books has helped me out a lot in regards of understanding others. I have a few mental disorders out running which makes it hard for me to relate.
Through reading I have been able to get over it in a sort of sense. Like… “This situation is somewhat similar to the situation in a book I’ve read. How did the character get through it?”
And by adding different point of views in books I’ve collected a bunch of “reference” for real life situations.
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That’s awesome! I totally get that, it can be useful to read how other people respond in certain situations. I think that’s why it’s so important to read diverse books and books about different things!
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OMG! My favorite is “The name of this book is secret”. ๐๐
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YES!!! It’s so good!!!
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