empathy

There's this thing that happens to me where I get super emotionally attached to what I'm reading. Not even to the characters themselves, I just put myself in the situation so completely that I start to feel that the story is happening to me.
I don't think it's very healthy.


On Sunday night, Kevin went to bed at 6pm so he could wake up at 3am to do homework (I know right? How amazing is he??). I decided to pick up a book I'd been procrastinating starting, "P.S. I Love You". I've seen the movie, I liked it, I thought it would be one of those "good cry" kind of experiences. I seriously read 28 pages and started SOBBING hysterically. I had to wake up my sleeping husband because I was so distraught, and he had to hold me for like a half hour, reassuring me that he wasn't going to get a brain tumor and die. Yeah, I'm taking that back to the library, unread.


Today one of my classes was cancelled, so I've been reading a book for my Adult Development and Aging class called "Life with Big Al." It's a woman's journal that she wrote during her time as a caregiver for her husband who had early onset Alzheimer's. It is an incredibly depressing book. It put me in a pretty foul mood for the next few hours.
It's interesting that this happens, that our emotions can be so swayed by something that has nothing to do with us.
Or maybe it's just me.