English and what makes a text literature

When I was younger I always thought of English as reading books and writing essays about them. I guess I just felt that I had to get through the book and write a summary of what I understood it was about. It was not until I was in high school that I understood it consisted of many other things. That is when I began to actually read the books and think critically about them. I always enjoyed books where the characters so distinctively described their emotions. It is probably for that reason why I believe that literature should be full of emotion in order to ignite something within us. It is different for each person because we do look for or see certain images according to the manner we are used to reading. Perhaps certain words or characters stand out to us more because they may be like us or someone we closely know. When something like this occurs one may feel even more emerged into the book and relate other instances with our own. Even if it is a book that takes place in another continent, 400 years ago or from now, I think that what is essential to it, at least for me, is the reality given to each character's individualism and life that it almost seems as if you do know the person. Although, I do love to read and it is for that reason that I enjoy exploring different areas of literature, whether it be science fiction, autobiographies and multicultural.