On Reading Novels

My first foray into paperback reading was when I had my college summer classes at CMC Kidapawan. During those times, except attending to my classes and helping on the household chores of my auntie Maria, I had plenty of vacant time, so it was kind of boring. I remained bored to death until I got hold of a paperback owned by my aunt.

It was an old John Grisham novel I uninterestingly picked up at the shelves of my aunt's room. I glimpsed at the flipside of the cover at first without any intention of reading it. I grudgingly flipped every page with all the intention of returning it to the shelves afterwards, barely reading its contents. Black printed letters on a white paper was so unappealing to me. When I reached the middle of the book, I decided to read a little.

I came across the portion where the author described a woman of interest of the main character. It struck me how printed words could enable the reader's mind to imagine and picture vividly a person, a place or a situation as described.

It got my interest and I continued until I reached that part where the main character and the woman had their love-making. Without realizing it, I read several pages in one sitting, and I felt so hot. And realizing further that I was in the middle of the story, I stopped reading and took out the paperback out from the room after I asked permission from my aunt, this time with the intention of reading the novel from the start.

That was the start of my addiction in reading paperback novels. I read right after I woke up, while eating, getting to and while on bed, in the comfort room, on the chair, on top of the table lying, at the branch of a tree, while walking at the roadside, while riding the tricycles and jeeps. I felt the emotions of the characters, and the beauty of the places as described. I felt the intensity of the events and the scenes.

That summer, I was able to read about 5 paperbacks from cover to cover.

Now paperback is only just an option. There are already several ways to bury oneself in a book. Reading ebook is one. And there are lots of options to read an ebook depending upon the format. You can choose from kindle, nook, iPad, playbook. I use epub ereader.

I have just read a 318-pages Jack Reacher novel written by Lee Child and and his brother Andrew Child. I read it in two ways: through my eyes and through my ears.

Playbook has the ability to have a voice read the ebook as an option for you and all you have to do is listen as every word is read, when your eyes are too weary to read the words yourself.