If there is one hobby that I haven't chance at since my teenage years, then that is Reading. Since the day I learned how to identify letters, I was always engrossed with it. Even I could barely understand the meaning. Pardon the comprehension of a kid, lol.
Thus, every time our teacher would give us time to read, unlike my classmates, I enjoyed it. Checking colorful fairytale books and children's fiction stories was indeed fun. Often my teacher would commend me for being so behaved. I just read silently in a corner.
When I reached teenage stage, I got hooked reading romance stories. What they called Pocketbooks. Here in our country the famous publishing company that time was Precious Heart Romances and I idolized many authors. Among them my favorite were Martha Cecilia and Helen Meriz.
As expected, since it was a Romance Book intances that some scenes were unsuitable for young readers. Needs SPG (STRONG PARENTAL GUIDANCE). Explicit scenes of the main characters. Since you are reading and if you're quite imaginative, you can picture out the scene.
With that, my Father doesn't like the idea of ME: reading those kinds of books. He was afraid that I might end up marrying early out of curiosity. Then he managed to stop me?
NO! He didn't. I was so hard headed that I would keep it inside my school notebooks or textbooks every time I read. (Pocketbooks size are just one half lengthwise of an intermediate pad paper). So he thought I am studying my lessons.
Isn't a brilliant idea? There are even times, I would turn off the lights, hide myself inside the blankets. Then, would used penlights just to read. Thank goodness that doesn't affects my visions. Still 20/20 since the last time I checked. A year ago.
Even at school, I still do these while my teacher discusses a lesson. I know, I know that was indeed a bad idea. So one time in history class, teacher gave a surprise quiz. I was so confident with my answer only to find out later that it was the name of the protagonist in the story I am reading! I was doomed!
The teacher scolded me and made me transfer seat in the front row. Yes, I have learnt my lessons.
Thus when I reach early twenties, I decided to stop reading. Why? It influenced me in the sense that I expect my relationship to go like the one I have read! To meet and have a man like in the main characters of thousands love stories I had read. A Hopeless romantic.
Then, got busy with work and the sudden boost of social media platforms. I forgot this hobby. Not until the pandemic came! That two months of staying inside the house, with no one except my fellow workmates, was so stressful. It was fun on the first week as I could stay in bed as long as I wanted. After that, my head was always in turmoil, thinking since I was in the capital where Covid was so rampant at that time. Hearing the serine of the ambulance as we are near the hospital gives me anxiety. I came to the point of thinking, what if I got infected? The died? My family couldn't even see me, just my urn.
One time, while I was browsing on Facebook came across this app;
Screenshot of installed apps on my Phone
Yes, it is Wattpad.
It is an online platform where you can find original stories, and you can choose the genre that you want. It was founded by Ivan Yuen and Allen Lau. Source
I was glad to find some of my favorite authors here. Thus you also need not worry if you don't want to spend. There are several Free stories. You just need to watch ads. I had followed and read the works of several authors, but my favorite was using the pen name Cecelib. Reading her stories was fun and always had a lot of twists. Also, she did a spend lot of research on some scenes as they are realistic. As of now, she already has 3.7 followers. Her stories had millions of reads too.
She writes using Taglish (tagalog - english). Yet, if you wanted to try, no worries, there many written stories here in English. Also you can find story synopsis here then just find the copy of the book at the store.
As they say old habits die hard Source, yes it was right. Now I was back into reading every time I felt like I wanted some relaxation, but I didn't want to get out of the house. This was also my savior at the peak of Covid. I would just stay in my room, scanning stories and reading even until dawn. When I start a story, I won't stop until I am done.
Yes, this is my entry in eccency posting topic about books. If you wanted to join check it here.
How about you? Do you love reading?
Lead image was edited using Canva
All photos are mine
Screenshots from my account in Wattpad
Screenshots from my account In wattpad
Lhes
December 06, 2022
