Let's Talk: Books

Good Morning (or night or afternoon, wherever you are, whenever you read this)! This post / email is for those who want something fun to read. Hope you stick until the end!

Last week, I touched on Anime and Manga. The week before, about writing. This week, I would like to talk about books (fun, I know).

Books were probably one of my earliest obsessions. I read books when I first started learning how to read, and the worlds that opened up to me were fascinating. Even in my Anime and Manga phase (which happened later), I tended to drift to books when I was at school for a lack of things to do. I am disappointed, when I look back, at how I didn’t read much physical books during my writing phase. I did read some books during my writing phase, and though it wasn’t as much books as I would’ve liked to have read and some books just weren’t interesting enough (I should learn how to drop a book), I did find reading books enjoyable. After my writing phase, I started reading non-fiction and fiction books, and those were enjoyable. Books have been a part of my life for quite a long time, and I do enjoy them.

English is technically not my first language, and I do have minor dyslexia, which is perhaps why my reading speed was not up to speed with most of the other kids when I was growing up. In my elementary school, there were the boring books for children, and then there was the library that had a whole bunch of interesting books for older kids. I don’t remember much of the boring books for children (perhaps they were not as boring as I now imagine they are), but I do remember how there were reading levels. Though I don’t remember how other kids perceived the reading levels and the books in each bin, I remember how I wanted to reach higher reading levels. Either the library was limited for those with lower reading levels, or the books in the higher level bins were more interesting, it motivated me to read at a better level.

The library had interesting fictional books and picture books. I remember that I had a favorite book but, of course, I forgot the title as it has been quite a long time. That was primary school. In middle school, we either had to go outside in the freezing cold or rain, go to some class that is supervised by a teacher (extra help or clubs?), or go to the library (where the librarian supervised). A lot of kids went to the library when the weather was bad, stayed in the cafeteria, or went out to get some lunch outside, despite it being bad weather. I liked going to the library a lot, to the point that I wouldn’t go outside even in good weather. It was fun staring at books or reading books on the ground. While exploring books, I naturally started to be curious about the non-fiction section of the library that was obviously segregated. Not many people read non-fiction books in middle school, and not many people fancied non-fiction books in high school. That was the start of my spontaneous, yet continuous obsession with non-fiction books. It came in pokes, egging me on to read one of the books—see how boring it is. You could say I only read a few sentences of non-fiction books in middle school. Otherwise, middle school was amazing.

My middle school sat right next to a library. During our senior year of middle school, me and my friends decided to hang out in that library during lunch, away from rowdy freshmen who couldn’t escape school grounds during school. Well, not really, but we did, and it was fun. That library was…tiny. However, it had more books than our school library, and it was fun to go out. My friends (one of whom was the one who got me into Anime) were into books. It was either us reading random books we picked out of the shelves or my friend working on homework. It was really fun, until some rowdy kids from our school ruined it for all the rest of us (they liked going to the library to play games and disturbing other people who were trying to do whatever they were doing in a library). We still went, though with some restrictions (such as a pass we had to have), and it was still enjoyable, to say the least. The only thing I didn’t like about those times is that my friends decided not to go to the same high school as I did, which was reasonable, seeing how they were smart or artistic, and there were schools that were better for that.

During the first half of my high school career, I was not reading many books. Sure, there was that non-fiction, boring world war I book I finally decided to start reading in my sophomore year that I never finished, but I didn’t really read, and I thought that that was a shame since I still liked reading, and I knew that reading was a good habit. So, in my junior year, I decided that the most logical thing to do was join a book club. Of course, in my sophomore year, the thought had crossed my mind, but I procrastinated or made excuses, and so, I never joined. The book club was great, and thus, I was able to develop a fairly good reading habit and enjoy reading. I also discovered, from my fellow club members, that I had not picked up much of the good reads, therefore making me feel like I wasn’t that much of a reader. They were all fun people, but I didn’t know how to review a book properly, and they did, which was probably why I felt like I was not much of a reader. If they asked me what I liked about the book, I would go blank for 30 seconds before coming up with any kind of satisfactory answer. However, I had fun at the club, and the rest is history.

So, I do very much like reading, and I enjoy the mountain of information and, perhaps, the other world that literature amuses me with. Reading is one of my oldest obsessions, and I continue loving reading. I believe my love for reading has helped me be a better writer at times, and reading has helped me understand the world a bit more. Though reading is not for everyone, I hope that someone who reads this is inspired to pick up a book (though I’m not sure what part of the newsletter prompts you to do so), and enjoy the experience of the book and reading in general. Then again, someone who doesn’t like to read would probably not be reading this 😅 .

Thanks for sticking this long, and I hope you have a great week! 😁 

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