How Reading Turned into a Necessity

It all started with not being able to express myself. Writing essays in primary and high school were always a torment. Structuring my thoughts and finding the right words to deliver them posed a great mental barrier that I could hardly surpass. Repetitions were ripe, set patterns in which I could write my paragraphs were the crutch that helped me limp to the end of a mechanical and lifeless sentence.

Reading was a chore up until I was 14. My mum kept pestering me with: "reading will improve your vocabulary". It annoyed me to high heaven! (Probably because I was fully aware of how much my vocabulary needed improving). "Kenilworth" by Walter Scott was the first book that I read with my mum's challenge in my head. I don't remember anything that I read in that book. Just that it was about princes and castles and love matters, etc. (I am awful when it comes to remembering story lines! I only seem to remember fragments of information that made an impression upon my mind because of their moral or artistic sides.) And since then, I can say that my passion for reading started.

I soon realised that my mum was right. But there was so much more to reading. It uncovered universes uniquely designed through their laws, characters and moeurs, as the French would put it. Those universes enriched and brought light to mine. They helped me understand people a lot more, they helped me improve my vocabulary as my patient mother prophesied and opened my mind to Understanding and Wisdom. Nonetheless, I don't profess to be wise or of sound understanding; just to have dabbled a bit with the said concepts to create some kind of "normality" and morality for my universe.

When it comes to characters, something occurred to me as I was finishing the trilogy by Dave Pelzer: that when I read a book for a while (and I have been spending quite a bit on these ones), some characters become part of my life. Like friends almost. Picking up the book to follow on with the story is the equivalent of saying Hi to these faceless people. Or trying to help solve their problems or getting some inspiration for how to solve mine as I see how they solve or don't solve theirs. Reading really stops my brain from going dead. But it doesn't stop here...