The stories that never end

"If you have never spent whole afternoons with burning ears and rumpled hair, forgetting the world around you over a book, forgetting cold and hunger - If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless..."

- Never Ending Story

Magic. Adventures. Ordeals. Dreams.
Where the power of imagination prevails over the mundane reality, a story never ends. It's a different yet parallel world that goes on and on. And the signification of every little detail of the story changes or grows with you.

Escapism, people might say. The magical world, however, is not disconnected to or separated from the so-called real world. It does not necessarily urge you to escape from the reality. As far as we don't abandon one of them, the stories transform themselves into inspirations and references in both worlds.

Children's novels, or fairy tales are not always happy and pretty. The characters ceaselessly learn to overcome obstacles, either voluntarily or reluctantly. Sometimes they fall, they fail and they cry. And they learn and "grow up". Growing up can hurt, and that's why it feels nice.

We often forget how to grow up. We just get old.

I've read many books. I've read some pedantic books daubed with sophisticated vocabularies, I've read some truly brilliant novels and philosophies. But their stories are often lifeless. They cease growing the moment when I stop reading, when I think I've learned. The seemingly naive and unsophisticated fairy tales are the ones that I hold on to, revive my motivations and consistently tell me another story. They are sophisticated, elaborate words under an innocent disguise.

A wonderful story has come to an end.
A wonderful story is to be read over and over again.
A wonderful story never ends.