The Me of Today

I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently. We were discussing books we liked, and I mentioned a book I once picked up and didn't finish because it simply wasn't to my tastes. A year later, I tried again, and thought, "What didn't I like about this book? It's fabulous!" The answer?

The book didn't change, I did.

We are all influenced by the world around us, our experiences, and whether we like it or not, the opinions of others, however subtly at times. When I look back over my life, my thoughts, opinions, and worldview changed over time. I learned, I looked at things a different way.

A phrase crept into the conversation with my friend: "the me of today." Instead of saying we didn't like a certain book or genre, we realized how we evolve in our tastes, likes, and dislikes. The me of today is vastly different from the me of ten years ago, twenty years ago, etc. So instead of saying we didn't like something, we said, "the me of today didn't really care for that."

Which brings me to why you won't see low ratings on books on my Goodreads list. The book I didn't like today might be the book I adore three years from now. Wouldn't I feel bad if I'd given the story a low rating or review? Also, I use that site to talk about the books I think those with similar reading tastes might like.

The great part? We're all entitled to our opinions. Isn't free-thought amazing? But my opinions change as I become older, wiser, and my understanding of the world shifts. 

So, the book on my e-reader that I didn't finish five years ago? Maybe it's time for the current me to look again.