Day 19 (Bookworm)

I grew up surrounded by three things - computers, music, and books. The last one is mainly my mom's influence; she'd have all these Robert Ludlum, Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, Tom Clancy, John Grisham and all those suspense thrillers and espionage novels in our bookshelf. She used to tell us how she couldn't put down a book once she started it, to the point where she'd read in the car while waiting for the stoplight to turn green and get so engrossed that the car behind her would honk the horn to pull her back to the real world. LOL. Thank you, Mama, for getting us hooked on books.

Another picture of you.

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago out of boredom while on house arrest due to sickness caused by fatigue, and now I'm using it as my profile photo on most of my social networking sites.

When we were kids, I would throw curious glances at my older sister whenever she chuckled while reading a book (I think it was one of David Eddings' Malloreon books). I gave in and asked her what was funny, and she told me to read it. I did, and soon enough I was laughing too. That got me reading all sorts of things after, from Goosebumps to Sweet Valley to Sherlock Holmes. I also got to read some of my mom's Sidney Sheldon books (Master of the Game, If Tomorrow Comes). Eventually I went on to heavy reading and started with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (14 books, each of them are about two inches thick, which I think I need to re-read from the first book), and my younger sister's own collection (Virgin Suicides by Jeff Eugenides, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown).  It also helped that my high school friends are bookworms as well. I'd borrow Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk from my best friend Ju, and I got lots of book recommendations from KC, Ria, Lai and Au. :))

But I wasn't really an avid reader. I read, sure, but I would usually prefer one genre (sci-fi/fantasy for the longest time) and the intervals between books were pretty long. Now it's like I can't get enough of reading. I pick up a book and I am transported into a different world, living a different life, seeing things through different eyes. I become the hero, the sidekick, the villain, and the bystander all at the same time. It's a weird, interesting, exhilarating feeling, and it certainly gets my mind off things (like stress from work and...other, more personal stuff LOL).

I started this thing two years ago, where I'd set goals for the year like how many movies to watch, or games to finish, or books to read. I set my book goal last year to 3, and I finished 9 books. LOL. This year I'm aiming for 7-10 books, and I am now on my 5th (Heat Wave by Richard Castle) in just three months. Who knows, I might up the ante and try for 20. And I plan on pushing through with that long term goal - to finish all the fiction books in our book wall. Wish me luck. :))

Check out my Goodreads account to see what I've read so far, plus the books I plan to read. :)