I'm glad I became a bookworm - Part I

My first storybook was the 3-in-1 compilation of Enid Blyton's Famous Five. I remember the scenario of how I got this book that's heavier than my dictionary then. I was in a bookstore with my dad, who was looking for some stationery.

I was six, the age when most children love to follow wherever their parents go; as well as a regular girl (ok, maybe a hyperactive one) who loves to play hopscotch, five-stones, 'catching' with my cousins, and watch cartoons instead of read.

Ten minutes since I stepped into the bookstore, my attention span wavered. I looked around and spotted the section where all the storybooks for my age were placed and walked away from my dad towards it. One of the books placed on the 'Top-sellers' bookrack was this really thick and heavy-looking book that looked more like a dictionary than a storybook. Thanks to the illustrations on the cover, I could identify it just as what it is.

I hurried over to my dad, who was already queuing up at the cashier, and pleaded for him to buy me this book that I had not even read its sypnosis just because I thought that it will be nice to be portrayed as this intellectual kid that read an ultra-thick book. Trust me, I've no idea where this notion came from. I must be real vain and image-conscious then as compared to the person I'm now.

Being the ever doting father that he always is, he never even hesitated or looked at its price or read its summary and bought it for me. And I was such a wonderful daughter for putting it aside on the corner of the second row of the bookshelf, which is on top of my study table for a whole year without reading a single word. It was only when I tidied my table that I picked it up again.

I felt guilty instantly for not reading it as the book must be very expensive (to the seven-year-old me who was convinced that this is considered a form of luxury) and how could I not read it at all when I was the one who asked my dad to get it in the first place!

So I started reading it. I realized after reading that it was actually three stories combined into one book instead of just one, and that reading itself could be this exciting. I have a knack for visualizing the details I read and thus had no difficulty transporting into the adventures of Famous Five and get lost there.

My mom, who saw that I had developed this love in reading, bought me more of Famous Five. I grew from it to Sweet Valley and Nancy Drew; then Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen's novels, and have since proceeded to the variety of mangas and novels I read now.

I love to explore the plots that the authors built up in a painstakingly-detailed manner, the humor and wit of their words, and the swirl of emotions I feel whenever my whole being gets devoured into this exciting realm the authors have created. But most of all, I love how they can make me smile and laugh when I'm downright depressed.

I'm glad I became a bookworm.