Books, Bad Boys & Tattoos

My not-so-updated bookshelf.

I started reading and collecting books in 2012. Prior to that I was an ultimate “book nerd hater”. My friends and I insulted book nerds. We condemned books and reading. We thought reading was for nerds, one thing we didn’t want to be called, and it was nothing but boring.

I grew up surrounded by books. I know, I know, ironic, isn’t it? My parents made sure my siblings and I grew up as bookworms like they did. I learned how to read at the age of five and if I remember it correctly, when I was kid, I couldn’t sleep without reading a book or two. I don’t know what happened when I reached fifth grade. Perhaps because technology and social networking sites have become rampant that reading books became the bottom of my priority list. 

Then one day, a miracle happened.

Summer of 2012, we just got back from La Union where we had a mini reunion during the Holy Week. One of my cousins asked if she could use my PC because she needed to download something for her project (she was an IT student, she’s a graduate now) and then we found out that our router was having a malfunction. 

My dad promised that he would have it fixed right away knowing us who couldn’t survive one day without Facebook. 

It took PLDT two weeks to respond. By then we were more than bored and I almost cursed PLDT because my cousins were leaving the next day and there was no internet and I was dying of boredom. So my cousins tagged me along as they went to check on books at the local bookstore. They’re avid readers, you see. I was very excited not because we were going to the bookstore but because it was located in SM and strolling around the mall was a breather. 

I didn’t end up strolling.

I ended up reading a book instead. It was Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate. My cousins read books for almost two hours and because they asked me to wait for them which definitely bore me the heck out of me, I had to grab a book and check it out as well.

That started my journey with books.

I then realized the book I was reading was part of a series and it wasn’t the first book. I searched the shelf and saw Torment, which had a similar cover, and thought of buying it as soon as possible. I asked my dad a day after if I could buy it and he happily said yes. 

There you have it. I bought Torment by Lauren Kate. I was rather stoked to start reading when I got home. I even grabbed a pencil to mark the words I didn’t understand and even underline my favorite lines. My mom saw me and told me about her bookworm habits when she was a teenager. She said I inherited that habit from her. She used to read anything and marked everything she didn’t understand. That was how it enhanced her

vocabulary and now she’s an English teacher. 

It’s funny because Torment isn’t the first book either. It’s Fallen. I discovered it only when I was already halfway through the book. After Torment I went back to the bookstore for Fallen. Unfortunately, Fallen wasn’t available at the bookstore yet. So I had to wait. But since I had nothing else to do and I thought I enjoyed reading, I bought Vampire Academy instead.

From then on, I spend my summers reading books. Actually, not only summers. I buy books every time I have free time even on school days. I even got scolded by my teacher in high school because I was reading instead of doing our thesis. 

Who would have thought that a book nerd hater like me would end up as one?

Now I have a hundred physical books and five hundred ebooks. Why do I only have a few books? It’s because I don’t buy another one unless I finish one. So yes, I’ve read every book I have. Oh and most of my books are with my friends so my bookcase doesn’t look like a two-years worth of collecting books.