My love for reading had started since I was a kid. I read anything that was available around the house. From my older relatives' college books to the magazines and brochures that my parents brought from their work place. Everything was just so interesting. Each reading material opened up a new world for me. So I devoured everything I could lay my hands on.
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| Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash |
I remember specifically 5 books that I really enjoyed reading back then and one of them remains one of my favorites even until now. I'm sure some people can relate to some of them and some of them might be quite surprising for a kid to read too.
The Life of Joan of Arc
I don't remember the exact title of the book and the author but I picked it up on the bookshelf one day because it was a small book. The pages had small letters and no illustrations so it was actually a long read. However, I found her life story so interesting that I finished it in one day.
He life story wasn't all girly and romantic at all, but was instead full of struggles and heroism and then, it all ended in her death. Such a grim story for somebody so young to read about but I didn't end up feeling down after I finished reading. Instead, I loved that she was a hero, that she stood by her beliefs, that she did everything her own way no matter how hard, and that she helped uplift a lot of people while walking her chosen path.
She became an inspiration to me. For me she was a hero who showed that a woman can be strong based on her belief and her actions alone. Yes, she died in the end but she fought for what she believed in and people recognized her for it.
Of course, the spiritual aspect was not lost on me but I didn't really focus on that. I was just fascinated and glad to learn that there is a female hero because most of the heroes we are familiar with are men, even most of the saints are men.
The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
I know it's a drastic departure from Joan of Arc but I was also fascinated with his short stories and even his poems. His poem, The Raven is still memorable to me even today. His short stories, even though they are dark, didn't really scare me as a kid. Yes, they made my hair stand on end at some points but they only fueled my curiosity.
The Fall of The House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado gave me the creeps but I remembered being fascinated by the questions and realizations that cropped up in my head as I was reading them. Questions such as: Why or how did people become so evil? but also: How terrifying humans can be when they let evil thoughts and intentions control their actions and motivations.
One other story that made me dwell on such thoughts was Silence - A Fable which tells the story from the perspective of an actual demon. It didn't give me the chills like any horror story but it made me wonder what motivations and life stories other villains from other stories had to become that way. His stories and poems are still a favorite of mine until now.
Children's Hour Encylopedia
In high school, I often stayed in the library during lunch break, after a hurried meal. I was fascinated with finishing the 40 volumes of the Children's Hour encylopedia. It was a collection of all the children's stories from around the world.
Just like any encyclopedia, the letters on each page were small but it had illustrations which fueled my creativity and imagination. I would often try to copy the illustrations after reading the story. I sometimes traced some of the illustrations because I wanted to make them into book marks. I DIYed several of these for my own use and just for how cute and pretty all the illustrations were even though they were not colored pictures. They were drawn through simple lines but they were still fascinating and still evoked the whimsical and magical feel of the stories.
I especially liked the stories and illustrations featuring elves and faeries in them. I also loved the illustrations with animals and plants, such as mushrooms, that looked cute. And so, lunch time became my 'me time'. The time for me to indulge in my imagination and in my new found hobby without the stress of classroom lessons and assignments.
It was a time that belonged only to me, without parental expectations and absent from the noise and judgment of my teachers and classmates.
Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys
In that same high school library, I also discovered the detective stories of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. I loved the whole process of how they found and figured out clues and put the whole picture together to explain what actually happened.
It was like putting together a puzzle but you had to find the puzzle pieces first. I've always loved puzzles, including crossword puzzles and so their adventures fascinated me to no end. I was quite sad when I finished all of the books and wished the library had more.
Perhaps, this helped me understand my lessons well too, especially history and science, and my language lessons too. Constructing together something in a logical way made me able to connect facts and stories more thoroughly and made the learning process more fun. Unfortunately, it didn't benefit me in my Math lessons. Words just have a different logic than numbers for me visually, at least.
Still Love Books, Reading, and Learning
These books made my childhood more fun and quite interesting. I am sure they helped me open my awareness to different ways of looking and understanding the world which in turn helped me develop my critical thinking.
I still love putting together different ideas in my head and finding a common ground between them - their origins, their intention, or their end goal or the method to get to their goal. I still enjoy puzzles, crossword puzzles, as well as psychological puzzles.
Most of all, I still love reading for the sake of reading. I read from different genres, topics and themes. This habit helped me a lot in college when I couldn't get into my preferred course and had to enroll into a literature course instead. I stayed in the course and later enrolled into a film course, which expanded the type of media I read and analyzed.
I'm glad my relatives didn't forbade me from reading all their old and new books. I remember how content I was to be left all alone in the house as long as I had food to last the day because I looked forward to have all the house to myself, so I could read all the books I wanted to read, while the adults did what they did outside in the world.
I have since moved on to other genres and types of literature just because but also due to college and because of work. Although reading has had its stressful moments when I need to read some stuff for an assignment or work, I still end up enjoying the process and satisfied with the finished work.
And that is why, I usually gift books to my nieces and nephews and even to my close friends. I believe reading a book can expand your world and your understanding of it. It might even help you gain new insights that will help you solve a problem that's been bugging you, or one that can change your life. If you can't afford to travel, a book is the next best thing to go on an adventure.
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