reading and ego-entrism

do you apply most things you read to your own life? (brian, i know you don't read.. you can skip this, or insert "watch" and "movie" for "read" and "books")
i do. maybe this is good, and helps me process information/plots, and also my own feelings/happening, and maybe it's bad, and keeps me from delving into other characters instead of "losing myself on books" which is i think the point of some books. and movies.
anyway. i just finished reading the poisonwood bible and it made me think of sam a lot. first of all, it criticizes religion a lot, which obviously sam was down with. secondly, the loss of a character and the reaction of others (no i'm not giving anything away- it's mentioned pretty early on) was remarkably similar in many ways to my experience with sam's death. mostly the part where they have to tell another character about it. granted, it was in africa. and the person did not die in nearly the same way. but still. i think death and the reactions to it are pretty universal. they differ in manifestation but not really in the basics.
i know this is vague, but i think everyone should read the book and i don't want to give it away. and i know it's sad, but i have come to the conclusion that i should be less afraid to make people feel sad when i talk about it because i effing need to talk about it. anyway, i kind of had to get that out, because i finished the book and had to go directly to class and take a quiz so it wasn't really enough processing time.
thanks.