Reading has always been one of my intense passions. I have always been a reader since I was a child. The written words in the papery pages of a book have always been a wonder to me, a source of comfort, a kind of adventure.
As a child, I was surrounded by textbooks because my mother worked as an academic tutor back then. As soon as I was able to read words, I began to religiously read those books, poring over pages and pages. I even read textbooks that were targeted to higher grade level than my actual age. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to be exposed to actual fiction books when I was younger because we didn’t have money to buy those. So I contented myself to reading those second-hand textbooks at home, flipping through pages of short stories and poetry and excerpt of novels in an English and Filipino textbooks, of trivias and scientific discoveries and body systems and heavenly bodies in a Science textbook, of historical conquests and colonial territories and geographic boundaries of Social Sciences textbook. Really, my reading materials as a child were eclectic and diverse. I am not a super intelligent person, but I am thankful of those textbooks that I read as a child because it gave me unparalleled stock knowledge that helped me as a student and as a young adult.
I was on my pre-teen to teenage years when I became gradually exposed to actual literary books. However, I was still penniless to buy the books that I wanted to read. Hence, I usually borrowed books from my classmates to satisfy my bibliophilic hunger. Soon, I discovered Booksale, and I began buying books worth five to twenty pesos. Without enough allowance, my maximum book budget during my high school days was forty pesos.
During those times I felt alone, in terms of my reading habits. I was a cheerful, friendly, talkative kid; but I didn’t have any friends who were readers like me. I thought that I was weird for loving books, that there are no other people who have the same interest as mine. Of course, not I realized what a foolish thought it was. In my junior year in high school, we started having our Internet connection. I was a social media enthusiast and became active in online communities. I had had established friendships with my online buddies (I’ve met most of them, and I consider them as my real-time friends until now). I learned that they enjoy reading, too; and a realized how under-read I was when it comes to fictional literary books.
It was only when I had a part-time job (later on, full-time) job when I started to buy decent and brand new books. I was 17 when I was hired part-time in a local company in our town, and I continued working full-time there until I was 19. I got my paycheck twice a month, and each time I reserve a budget for books. Each payday I try to buy at least one brand new books, or haul piles of books in book sales. Subsequently, I signed up in Goodreads.com on July 2012 and became an active user of the website since then. I also joined book clubs, until I became an active member of Pinoy Reads Pinoy Books, a local book club that patronize Pinoy books.
Coincidentally, my growing bibliophile habits resulted to me building my own "personal library." As of present, I own more or less 350 books, which are all cramped in my tiny room. I know they weren't really that many to be considered a "library," but I take pride in my owned books, because almost all of them came from my own pocket. A big percentage of my owned books were from book sales, some were generously given to me by my friends, and only a few were actually brand new. I'm also a sucker for signed copy, and I am fortunate enough that a growing number of my books were actually signed by their authors!
Since I'm always trying to be a regular book reviewer at Goodreads, I decided to finally create my own book blog. I have been dumping my reviews from Goodreads to my personal blog before, but I decided I want that blog to be just a personal blog with a tinge of my literary struggles. So here it is, I succumb to the temptation and created a book blog.
We may or may not agree to the reviews written on this site, but I hope you'll have fun reading my book reviews. :)
