• I’ve read the Funk and Wagnall’s encyclopedia from Volume 1 to 25. Of course I didn’t read one page after another though but I chose among the interesting topics per volume. Most of which are on history, famous people, science and geography. Astronomy also fascinated me but the books were way too archaic and this was pre-internet age. I wish though I had a sharper memory.
• Speaking of history, the Philippine History textbook by Gregorio Zaide rank as of my favorite books in high school. I was so affected when I realized the book was given away later as a hand-me-down. I like reading history books only if the author is a great story teller. Otherwise? I’d fall asleep faster than you can say “boo!” too.
• Come to think of it, I’ve read every volume of our entire encyclopedia at home (Science Library and Charlie Brown encyclopedia included). Looking back, I was actually thinking someone has to put them to use. Only my dad and I really liked reading for a hobby.
• I was not taught how to read. I learned to read before my actual preschool education. I did not go through the phonetic reading stuff and technicalities. The tagalog comic books and songbooks lying around at home (owned by my yayas) came in handy.
• Having said that, you can imagine how hard it was for me when it was time to teach my children how to read.
• My love for reading did not necessarily translate to perfect scores in reading and language/spelling class during my grade school years. GS years were mostly memorization, which I hate. But I got my payback during high school and college days. The perfect scores came during high school English and Literature where you need more analysis of the reading material and essays than mere memorizaton. I also get exempted in my English finals in college. This asserts my hypothesis: It’s always just a matter of time. Hah!
• I can remember the first story book I ever owned. It was a birthday present from the school directress during my preschool day – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Little Mermaid. For a fairy tale, the Little Mermaid was bit too much for a five-year old to handle.
• I never liked reading Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys. Never liked reading any science fiction and futuristic stuff either. I love reality, thank you very much.
• However, ironically, I love Mythology. I still have my dilapidated book on Edith Hamilton’s Mythology which was a required reading from high school. Funny because they are quite fictitious but they have a hauntingly mysterious air. I also thought these are the fairy tale stuff of the early civilization.
• I got hooked reading Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy long, long, long before Stephanie Meyer and J.K. Rowling made a box office killing by making witches and vampires appear to be these wholesome, cuddly guys/gals next-door superstars. I am biased but Anne Rice’s vampires and witches have these truly gothic, blood curdling and dark mysterious streak. In a more obtuse comparison, Rice is classic; Meyer, Rowling et al (and the growing breed of Meyer, Rowling et al wannabees) are the “Wakasan” version from my childhood komiks memory. And yes, I am NOT part of the Twilight bandwagon. Tried reading it but I found out it is effective only if I wanted to sleep early. Or need a good laugh. Which I might need soon. No apologies.
• I first wore eyeglasses at age six. Those really made me look like a true-blue geek. I had this misguided sense of pride that made me think people think I looked like a geek. Get it?
• My astigmatism was corrected at 2nd Grade. I wore glasses again one year after working in P&G
• I have to thank my high school friends/classmates (esp. Veronica, Carla and Hya) who loaned me the books that I read. I cannot afford to buy any books then. And so, when I started working, I started buying all the books I missed out reading. Mostly the classic literature. And Anne Rice’s. I also still borrow a lot too.
• My all time favorites: Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind (life before Civil war, NOT the star-crossed love story, okay?)
• For mental exercise, I read more of the thin volumes of contemporary paperbacks. And write in my blog.
• The height of unwisdom as an effect of my bookworm tendencies was when my mom caught me reading this book (Sweet Valley High, purely wholesome teen novel mind you) using flashlight while covered by a blanket (so she wouldn’t know I was still awake). Needless to say, she took the book and slammed it onto my head (out of sheer anger, I do understand her-it was exam week) and she took the book (which I only borrowed from a classmate). She forgot to take the flashlight though. I had another back-up book, hehehe.
• To relieve stress during the chemical engineering board exam week, I read cheesy novels every night just before the exam day rather than continuing to cram my brain. I passed.
• Call me old fashioned but despite the onset of e-books that you can download in PCs or your handheld device (which I’ve tried when I still had my Palm Pilot), there is no substitute to the reading experience using real books. Also, I cannot resist skimming the ‘ending’ no matter what. And this is tedious to do in e-books.
• I had this subscription of the Pambata magazine in grade school. In my 2nd grade, I read about the different kinds of scientists. I read about the Chemist and said to myself “that’s what I want to be when I grow up,” having spent summers mixing soil, shaving cream and Old Spice perfume. I was waiting for an explosion. The only explosion I got was my parents’ fuming in anger asking where on earth that foul smell came from!
• During junior HS year, I read about careers in chemistry from my Chemistry textbook. I thought that the engineer working in a plant fitted me better so I changed my mind and went for chemical engineering instead. Who would have thought books could influence my life so much?
• Home is not a home without bookshelves.
• Aside from “home,” my second homes will include the UST Main Library. I probably spent half of my college life there. I also prowled at the U.P. College of Science Library in my early R&D days when we didn’t have internet access at the office and I need a research on magnesium soaps.
• On business trips, I bring books to save me from boredom. Just in case.
• I still love reading encyclopedias until this very day. We bought a complete volume of Time Life books to get Kyla to love reading. Turned out I ended being the one reading them. My daughter has a calling of her own and I had to live with the fact that she is becoming the person she will be.
• A year later when I stopped hoping, Kyla was the St. Scholastica’s Learning Resource Center’s Top Book Borrower for July 2010.
