A Bookworm’ Complaint
2017-04-08
A Bookworm’ Complaint
By Wang Yifei (王怡菲), a 7th grader of Zhengzhou Middle School
Everyone in this world has something that they can’t resist, which is like a friend, or a partner to them. And to me, it is a book.
I love reading, and reading is part of my life and reading makes my daily routine as colorful as my dull life could be. I’m not even kidding. I read lots of books and that habit had improved my writing a great deal. 
In these days, book lovers aren’t that common anymore and many parents are literally thrilled to see their kids with a book, any book. In other words, they would be thrilled as long as their kids held a page with words on it. As you can see, there really aren’t many students reading anymore and their compositions are really down to hell and mine have been the model for three times in a row now.
So I thought my parents would be happy when they saw I was so digging into those “Pages with Words on Them” I’m always reading. I managed to squeeze my little friends into my tight schedule and that worked well.
Things are always unpredictable, and you get weirdoes at every door frame. So when I was going to school this morning, my parents stopped me by standing in the door frame. It is amazing how people always stood in their door frame to stop other people from doing something and that was exactly what happened to me today.
Okay, back to the main topic. I was blocked in the house by my parents and my dad spoke, “Sunny, we are going to have a talk with you.” And that sounded creepier than any other sound in this whole world. Usually when my dad says that we are going to have a talk, that means I’m going to stand there with my head hanging down and my parents scolding me.
And as I have known this routine a long time ago, I was in my role no more than three seconds. So there I was, with my backpack on my back and with my head hanging, and not to anyone’s surprise, my dad started scolding, “You are a middle school student now and you need to think more about your study! You can’t just go like this. You must go with a few more exercise books in your bag! I’m very disappointed in you and I hope that you will keep this conversation in mind, this will do great help to you in future days.”
I nodded and sniffed, trying hard to sound that I was truly devastated by my behavior while I didn’t even know where I’ve done wrong!
And then its my mom’s turn to deliver the lecture. I stood there with my head hanging even though my neck was already hurting and was trying very hard to subdue the urge of going to school right now because if I didn’t I would be in serious trouble with my teacher.
And finally, after my mom’s speech, I understood where the rub was. They think that I’m reading too much! Okay, I know this might sound weird but what I meant reading was like reading novels and scientific novels or Chinese emotional novels, and my parents think that these kind of books are rubbish. And they are literally “Pages with words on them”.
I know that kind of books they want me to read, which were all like Biology, Geography, History and loads of stuff. I mean, if they want me to read these, why don’t they just let me read more exercise books.
My dad was really worried about my writing skills, who was deeply troubled by what I’ve taken a favor to these days. I know where this all started: a few months ago, I was obsessed with a book called “Rushed to the Dead Summer” （夏至未至）, which got such beautiful phrases that my heart nearly melted on those pages. They were all like “She never met him, so the setting sun closed the door of the dawn”（她不曾遇见他，于是落日关上了拂晓沉重的门） or like “Someday, what we have experienced could all come back to us. Sing the song you once sang, walk the path you once walked, love the very person that you loved a million years ago”. （总有一天，我们曾经经历过的事情都会卷土重来，唱曾经唱过的歌，走曾经走过的路，爱曾经爱过的人。）
My dad was an official in the government so he was especially annoyed with books like this. What he didn’t know was that all girls in my age read this kind of books now, and besides, its got a really nice point and we could actually learn a lot from it.
My dad wouldn’t listen to my explanation. He had found one of my latest compositions and was fussing over it for the whole day. In the end, I couldn’t even tell if he was my dad or some old lady that wouldn’t stop talking about one thing anymore.
Too bad for me, that book was forbidden now and I was really eager to get another book of that kind, and now it looks like it won’t happen in my wildest dreams.
Sometimes, I envy those times of my childhood, when I didn’t really have to do anything and the only question that I kept thinking in those days was “What am I going to eat next?” It seemed so nice that I nearly wanted to kill my younger self for being so comfortable.
Everyone couldn’t help it when the time is flowing rapidly like water. And I couldn’t help reading sentences like “He stood quietly behind her, and at that moment, the temperature went up in their eyes and there was wetness in those hands.” （他在她的身后安静地等着。在那一瞬间，眼神里有了温度，手心里有了潮湿。） 
Maybe my parents just need to understand my feelings sometimes and maybe I should just obey them since what they did was all for me.
And man, this world is truly confusing.
(1099 words)
My daughter is 11 and she is a real bookworm too, just like you. She is fluent in three languages but she doesn't write as eloquent as you in any of them. Bravo.
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