Originally written: Wednesday, March 29, 2006
All for the Love of Reading
As far as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with reading eversince I learned how to do it. When we were small, I remembered we have those story books/fairy tales that our parents bought for us and we read them.

Then when I was in school, I always read our reading textbook - even during summer, just for the sake of reading something. If I finished all the stories in our reading textbook, I would read our brothers textbook then. Other times, I also read comics and magazine - though I just skim the latter since it was heavy reading for a child.

The first ever book that got me hooked on reading pocketbooks was a Nancy Drew on sixth grade. I can still remember the title was "The Sign of the Twisted Candle" borrowed from our classmate. Since then, I was forever borrowing books from our classmate.

High School came and it got worse because there were more people to borrow books from and there are a lot of books to borrow from the library.

So in high school, I spent more time reading than studying. LOL! And our mother doesnt want us to read. Instead she just wants us to study and study. Naturally, I find ways to keep her from knowing that I was reading instead of studying. But the irony of all is that she is always urging our brother to read - while we, who are reading are forbidden to do so.

In our room, I would prop a textbook on the heavy dictionary and put the pocketbook in front of the textbook. I would shift the table to face the door so when our mother would come to check on us, I could secretly hide the book I was reading in the ever-present pillow on my lap for that purpose. But sometimes, I got so engrossed in the book that I would react too late. I would jerk in a guilty way and our mother would know that I was only reading pocketbook - not studying so she would search my table and my bag to search for the book and hide it away.

But of course, I won't give up easily. Once she will go out, I would go to their room and search every inch of their room for the hidden book. And I was always successful. LOL! Most of the time, the venue of the hidden book changes - sometimes she even hid it in one of her purses - but I found them all. Maybe that is why, I got patient with searching for information I want because of this experience.

Whenever we go to the malls, Sharie and I would always go to the bookstores and look for books. We have known so early that our mother would never buy us pocketbooks. One time we asked so what we did before was go to our father and ask if he has money. And he would always reply, "Why, you wanted to buy pocketbooks again?" We would reply in affirmative and he will give us money. When our mother would know later on, she would be upset but she cannot do anything anymore. We had our father's permission. LOL!

Upon reflection, could the passion for reading might be hereditary? LOL! Our maternal grandfather also loves to read. He reads newpapers, comics (some of the comics that we used to read), magazines and sometimes even the magazines about showbiz gossips. Our maternal aunt and uncles are fond of reading too and have pocketbooks at the house then. On our fathers side, we have these two aunts who are crazy over reading too. So maybe we have inherited our desire for reading from them.

Labels: Books, reading