The Love for Reading

I've seen on facebook about someone asking a woman how to persuade her child to read instead of playing with smart devices and she answered that children don't hear us, they imitate us. It sparked in me an interest to contemplate for a while on when did I start to love reading books. I didn't see my mother or father reading books way back as far as I remember. Mind you, when I was young, books were still on physical form.

As I try to reflect back, I think it was the children's books for my youngest brother that was one of the key factors of loving to read. Then with a black board and a chalk, I would pretend to be a teacher. Whenever we go across the toys and books, I would read them all over again. The pictures consisted of very bright colors.

I am not necessarily pumped up in going to school and studying in advance. But I get a feeling of immense thrill when the books for the school year are distributed to the students before the start of classes. I enjoyed scanning and skimming them (which was at the time I didn't know was a study hack) and sometimes read the stories in the books.

Fast forward in my secondary education years. I get succeeding failing marks on my tests in my Algebra class and am deeply perturbed by it. I even got the guts to ask the upper classmen out of desperation I guess but unfortunately they didn't remember on how to. I asked for my mothers help but she also couldn't solve it. So I have no choice to to go solve it on my own and delved in the mini-library in school. Libraries in public schools are not sophisticated and might be limited but overall, I think the library in our school ranges better than those in the public provincial library. I know because I happen to check them out due to a research paper. Anyway, I self-learned and solved problems until I got better. It was a good thing that the books I'm practicing on have answers in the end so I know if I am on the right track. I also discovered that my teachers were also taking reference on these books so when the classes started and problems were unveiled, I already know how to solve these problems.

In my free time, I almost always go to the library to lend some books and there was a school year that I managed to fill out all my library card because it was already full. There were novels, books and newspapers in the library. Sometimes I read novels and newspapers but what piqued me the most were the short stories and the nonfiction kind of books. Oh, I also enjoyed reading and collecting Filipino Funny Komiks and often bought it in sale that would only cost 15 pesos I think. My personal favorite was Anton D Ant. I can vividly remember that there was an episode in the comic that introduced hydrophonics. And the later episodes teaches readers tips on how to draw.

Moving on to my tertiary education years, I began reading newspapers because I inherently believe that it is necessary to me to be updated at least in the basics of what is happening around me, thus, current events. In this time I also discovered a trove of rare gems that could be found in the National Library of the Philippines which is located in Kalaw, Manila. They have the Filipiniana section where they kept the books of Filipino authors. In that section, I was able to borrow and read Francisco Colayco's Pera Mo Palaguin mo that kick off my hunger for personal finance. I gobbled up reading self-improvement and psychology books. This was also the place where I happen to read John Robert Powers on etiquette and manners. That library was heaven of books for students like me who at that time couldn't afford buying these books with countless knowledge and wisdom. This was also the time that I happen to discover the electronic books which was chef's kiss because it was portable. 

During my student years, I was also an avid lurker and buyer of books from Booksale and National Bookstore. But now I happen to prefer checking out more books on Fullybooked stores because they got books not commonly found though they commence a higher price.