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As a child, I was a voracious reader even before I discovered the art of writing. I was always interested in reading the textbooks that other students thought to be boring because I found them interesting to read as well as educational and an added bonus for me was when the textbook had beautiful illustrations that aid understanding which only got me hooked. At that time, I didn't even understand what was happening to me but my mom noticed it and one fateful day, she took me on my first trip ever to a bookstore.
It was my first time being exposed to books that weren't textbooks and I remember being amazed at the number of storybooks that I saw and being blown away by the different beautiful illustrations on the covers of the books in that store. It was a happy day for me. Fortunately, the owner of the bookstore was a friend of my Mom and because he also noticed how excited I was to see all those books, he gave me a story book for free to add to my first collection and I remember being so overjoyed I literally jumped all over the place. I couldn't have been up to ten years at that time.
And that began my journey to the world of fiction.
Discovering fiction was like discovering the hidden treasure at the end of a rainbow and I couldn't have enough. I would stay up all night reading and when asked what I wanted as a gift, I would include story books and getting myself more story books to read was my top priority while writing came to me later on and I discovered that I could actually create stories of my own because I was prompted to do so.
HOW OFTEN DO I READ PHYSICAL BOOKS?
Compared to how I used to devour words on paper as a teenager before, I can say now that the enthusiasm has dropped by a large amount and that is because I discovered the ease of reading online. Getting my first smartphone and getting familiar with the Internet and how it works, I quickly found many of those apps that allowed users to read all types of books for free and that was the beginning of another reading spree on a different scale. I had many reading apps, but my favorites then because of ease of access were LightReader and Wattpad. I was always on my phone reading different books and the experience was enjoyable because the books were free and easily accessible and all I needed was data to download them to read offline.
Soon, I didn't even give thought to the idea that paperbacks still existed and they are actually the best. I was always on my phone reading any book that I wanted and I forgot what it was like to hold a book in your hand, immerse yourself in the book and forget about the world for a while, depending on the length of the book. I stopped reading paperback versions for a very long time and it even began to affect me because of the amount of time I was spending looking at my phone screen.
Currently, I do read physical books from time to time but most of the time, I depend solely on ebooks seeing as they're easily affordable and accessible. I think the only times that I willingly hold a physical book to read is when I'm on a break from school activities or when I have to read an important textbook that I bought in preparation for an examination. The last physical book I held in my hand and read was definitely a textbook and it was definitely because I had to study for examinations, but other books that I have been reading lately have all been online.
I do plan on resuscitating that voracious reading spirit in me and finding a way to fit it with all the activities that I have going on in my life right now without it being a hindrance to the important things I have to take care of and I have read two physical books so far, purely fiction too. I plan to read more in the near future.
