Burning the Passion for Reading

by Lucille de Mesa

A few days ago, my friend and I were reminiscing about our high school memories which led to talking about books. We were avid readers back in the day. I told her about my current Goodreads challenge and the review on my blog about a book I just finished reading. We were asking questions left and right about the books we read and if they were good or if they were something we wouldn’t read again. Then a thought came to me. Why do I read? Do other bookworms have the same reasons as me when it comes to reading?

1. I am not a fan of people who “speed read”

For some, speed reading is an acquired skill that may have been forced upon us by parents who think reading faster will help us be better students in our Reading Comprehension class, or simply, be the best among our classmates. Have you thought about how many books you speed read through that you really understood and came to love?

2. “Reading is a passion.” (We can all agree on this.)

I look at reading as something you have to put your heart into. I am not an author (yet) but I tried my hands in writing a story for National Novel Writing Month, or NANOWRIMO, in 2015. I failed at my first attempt. It’s not easy to come up with plot twists and build characters, after all. It needs time and also inspiration. I also had to put in mind my grammar when I was writing and challenging myself.

After that month, I had a new perspective as a reader. I didn’t want to brag about reading 100 books in a year. I wanted to brag about how I invested myself in what the authors wrote for us in their books. I always put in my mind that I am reading a book that took a person time to conceptualize and think about word per word. Maybe I have not considered that there are ghost writers, editors and others, but they are still people who worked hard for stories.

3. But don’t writers get paid to do their job?

I know for a fact that they get paid to do their job. Aren’t we all paid to do a job we choose and sometimes love to do? Think of writing a book as a task at your job that took months to finish and your boss simply looks at it for 30 seconds and says, “Hmmm… good job.” That was it, no questions. They did not even wonder how you did this and that. They did not digest your work. Isn’t that heartbreaking? It took you months to do and all they did was look at it for less than a minute.

With that, I want every reader to put this in mind:

Reading is an adventure. Do not be afraid to immerse yourself in the book you choose to read. Do not be afraid to feel what the characters feel. Do not be a spectator. Take your time to read it because it took time to create such a masterpiece. Don’t waste that opportunity by simply speed reading through it. Make yourself comfortable in it because when you finish that book you will be happier. Trust me. It’s going to be worth your time.

As our friend SpongeBob would say, use your