Don't tell me how to read this book

Or assume I want to know

The preconceptions you will give me

Are as unwanted as an early harvest snow

 

Because the princess was rescued from her tower,

You see only a romance

But I see a comedy

Because of all the things along the way 

That happened just by chance

 

Don't tell me how to read this book

What you consider failure,

That the knight could not kill the dragon,

I see as an abundance of self restraint

That the knight was not washed down with a flagon

 

Hand me a classic

But don't say a word

And I'll find an action

In the killing of a mockingbird 

 

Don't tell me how to read this book

I really don't want to know

Don't tell me it ends with a pile of bones

Let me hold on to hope,

Even if the book is from Game of Thrones

 

Don't say it ends happily either

And overlook smaller characters like Fred

Expecting better for my dear friends

Causes so many tears to be shed

 

Don't tell me how to read this book

Or any book at all,

Be it fairytale or Grimm

I don't want to know, so please don't tell me

How the tale must end 

 

Don't say you hate the writing style

Or a character for their mistake

Perhaps knowing what you despise

Causes my heart to break

 

Don't tell me how to read this book 

When recommending a title,

Keep the genre to yourself

And the reader will surely have find a favorite

With which to crown their shelf

 

Your perceptions aren't the same as mine

No matter how close we may be

A book that is a horror for you,

May be a murder mystery for me

 

Please, don't tell me how to read this book

We all deserve a chance

To learn, to love, to find a new home

All in a world that may never exist

 

What people forget, is that

Being fictional doesn't make it less real

Or less important, or less true,

All that matters in the end is how it changes you