Books, Books, Books

I promised myself every month to stop buying any more books until I have finished every single one of my unread books and yet every month I failed.

I can never resist or stop myself from entering into a bookstore. And of course every time I enter I will almost always end up with at least a minimum of one.

Who can resist the temptation of those exciting titles or those intriguing synopsis. Of course you must buy them all. If only I could read them as fast as I purchase them.

My interest in reading was inculcated mainly by my late father. As an educator he believed that the way to broaden your mind was to do a lot of reading. Since I was a child, I have always been surrounded by books. Reading was more of a habit than a hobby in my early childhood years. And that was how I grew up.

Our family used to have our own mini library at our old house. The shelves of books lined up against the walls excites me and the only way to get to those books, stacked on the higher shelves, was to climb a ladder. My sisters would always put their more adult books on the higher shelves, so I was unable to reach them.

As a kid I couldn't wait to grow up just so I could finally read those adult books. Those adults books were Sweet Valley High, which was only allowed to me when I was, myself in high school.

However as I grew older, more like after graduating and focusing more on my work, my habit of reading slowly diminished. Not that it was totally gone as I still had plenty of reading through law journals, case precedents but the interest wasn't the same. The motivation in reading to expand my horizon was no longer present. Reading became a mundane task and a necessary routine for my work at that time.

Years passed by and as I become more unhappy and restless with my career, I began to pick my old habits again, reading.

I promised myself that I will be more diligent in reading and it truly made me happy. Reading became my solace in this chaotic world called life. It was my escapism when I could not travel. It brought me to places I could never experience if not via the stories that I read.

This year I made a pact to read at least a book a month. Although I am behind by 2 books (only read 9 books so far despite already being in November), I vow I will finish 12 books this year.

Hopefully I can double this number next year as I have approximately 40 books (actually maybe more) yet to read. *cry*

To more reading!