A Reader for Life

by GEORGE DAIPAN


I have never really acquired the habit of what had become for me a very interesting pursuit of reading not until the second half of the year 1981.I remember it well. I am 13 years old and was then in my second year of high school. It's still so clear to me the first time I saw that book. A book that was supposed to be for elementary pupils.I still remember, it was a tattered book, worn out from many years of use.

Sitting on the doorway of my auntie's little house, the door leading to a three-steps wooden stairs with my feet resting on the last upper step - I began to read that book. It was a book of Filipino legends. I remember reading about " Mariang Makiling," a story of an enchanted lady who are said to be inhabiting a mountain that's named after her in a province we call, Laguna. There was also the story of " Bernardo Carpio," a Filipino version of Hercules. Another is "Biag ni Lam-ang," an epic tale that has its origin in the northern parts of Luzon particularly the Ilocos region. So goes a seemingly endless stream of stories and legends that had also fascinated many an elementary pupils before me. I was hook!

Reminiscing, I have no recollection of reading before that. Reading that is now become a habit, an interest, and something that you do,not because others tell you to like the teachers to their pupils. That you read because you truly desire it, that you truly want it. An interest that is now become an integral part of your life. Something you loved.

And so began my love affair with books. From that very first book i never look back except to give thanks about that time that I began to see the infinite value a habit of reading could actually do to ones life. History books not few, detective stories, science fiction, fantasy books, health books, literature and anything that could satiate my desire to know things and be informed. And what more with the advent of the internet. Now literary thousands upon thousands of books and information made available with just a click of the mouse. Reading materials one could readily access like this one now being written. There is one book that is top of my list. The Bible, which I call the manual of life although it's more than that. Of all the books I have read, this is the only book I have already read for about six times. And still my seventh is undergoing. What a wealth of truth we could received from this book. Wealth that is not just for this present life but most significant, for that one that is to come.

This is now the story that had began with just that one book. One story that is still ongoing, for I would truthfully say, that whether it be the books that had been said above, or the unimaginable vastness of the internet, or the saving truths of the Bible..I had become one - a reader for life.