Old and new. I just love looking at them especially if they are piled in a ceiling high book shelf. I love feeling them. The texture of the paper used. Some have embossed title cover. Some are shiny. Some are rough. But mostly smooth. I love running my fingers through them But most of all, I love smelling them. I don't know but books have a certain distinctive smell that when you enter a library or a bookstore you can't help but mutter: "Ahhhh! It smells like books!" =p
Even old books have distinctive smell. Yung tipong galing sa baul tapos pag inamoy mo sasabihin mong ang bango! (may kasama pang achoooooo!) XD
Kidding aside, what makes its smell distinctive is its smell of knowledge. Cause you know in between those pages is a world of its own. Some authors spent years to complete a book. Some only spent a matter of days. But every book promises knowledge. And if I'd mix that smell of knowledge with coffee-aroma ---- wala na. "I'm on a high!"
My knack for reading did not start at a very young age. When I was a kid, I was more of a TV/Comics fanatic. Books looked boring for me. They are literally full of words. No illustrations, just pure sentences. Plain Boring.
When I was in high school, I joined the bandwagon of reading Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews. But those did not lauch my book addiction. Third year high school: we had to submit a full novel analysis and I had no idea which novel I must read. My aunt suggested Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. It took me 3 months to finish the entire book. It's not because I didn't have ample time. It was maybe because the book is just really thick (it have 1448 pages!). Maybe because my reading comprehension during those time was not yet good that I needed to reread every chapter and since it was a long term project, we had to give chapter by chapter analysis.
Looking back, I realized I should had chosen a different book. That experience even made my likeness for books slimmer. After that, I was back to being stuck with reading academic text-books. And we all know that academic/school books are seasonal. Peek seasons are during quizzes and periodical exam time.
So of course the obvious question is, "What book made me love books?"
Well, as much as I want to say that it's the Electronic Communications System Fundamentals Through Advance by Wayne Tomasi, I have to give the credit to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter for the book that started it all-award. I was hooked. I badly wanted to read the books one after another. Sorcerer Stone, Chamber of Secret, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire and the Order of Phoenix --- I wanted to devour all of them over night (during that time Book 6 and 7 were not yet released). It was a newly found addiction. And when I finished book 5, I was left wanting for more.
That was also the time when I was nurturing some first-love-romance-state. I found my hopeless-romantic salvation from Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook. From magical adventure to romance. That's when I started experimenting, widening my book preferences. I tried tested-through-time/Best-seller authors first: John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, Tom Clancy, Dan Brown, Paulo Coelho, Mitch Albom or pretty much those authors whose books are available in our school library or a classmate has in possession. After that, I practically read anything (academic books are still exemptions here of course). Books from famous authors, new authors, controversial books, self-help books, fictional and non-fictional books. My pace gradually increased, comprehension was developed. Books that I can finish off in one sitting. Although there are still those that took me months to finish but it's either because I don't like the story or it's just badly written. But at least I still finish them anyway.
So my point here is: It's never too late to love reading, never too late to love books. You just need to find the right book that could change your perception. Don't be intimidated by the number of pages. The lines are more detailed and intricate than any illustrators can draw. The words are more truthful and painful. It's your time alone. It'll make you travel. It will let you get lost but it will also let you find an entirely new world.
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy. ~Edward P. Morgan
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