When did you start falling in love with books?

Dear Diary,

When I was a kid, my family would always encourage me to read. There would always be books inside the balikbayan boxes from our relatives in the US. Old children's books their children must've already outgrown. I remember my young self indulging in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Fun Fact #1

Sherlock Holmes owns the title for the

Most Portrayed Literary Human Character in Film & TV.

Both my favorite, Sherlock Holmes & Robert Downey Jr.
Photo by Fanpop

The classic was my favorite. Time came when all of the books inside the box didn't interest me anymore. I, too, had grown, but it was that book that I kept and keep on going back to whenever I crave for fiction. We didn't have enough money for books other than those required at school. Fiction falls under the wants section, rather than the needs.

Sherlock Holmes became my Peter Pan.
Reading its pages took me to a far away land.
Turning to the last page was running out of pixie dust.

Gonna be busy for a month or two. Thanks to my walking library @lilmisswonderwoman

A photo posted by Ana Gizelle Caoile (@gforareason) on Feb 22, 2016 at 2:33am PST

This is why when I met Anj (she has her own library and I loved her since day 1), she'd lend me a book after a book. Being the odd one out of all my siblings, it's a hassle every time I finished a book and feel... all the unexplainable feels. I, then, began to encourage my siblings to read. Afterall, encouraging them to like films was a success. They now have their own favorites, time for a new hobby.

Photo by TJ Leonardo

Fun Fact #2:

Got my overalls from the kids' section.

Yes, kids' clothes fit me.
Yes, this is irrelevant.

Sent out to pick up my sisters and bring them to the salon for a haircut, I decided to swerve into National Bookstore for a book that my sisters would appreciate. We discussed for about an hour to pick just one book among different racks. Why We Broke Up was the winner. There were lots to choose from, this wasn't the only book that caught my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I didn't go through a recent breakup, that's not the reason why we bought this. My sisters, on the other hand, are teenagers. They'll remember this on the shelf one cold, puppy-love-brokenhearted night.

I was reading a softcopy of this two years ago and didn't get to finish because, you know... how do you feel about softcopies?

When's a better time to buy this book than now? National Book Store's Cut-Price Sale paved way to my beautiful intentions of pulling my sisters to the right side of their brains.

This book by Daniel Handler attracted me for its illustrations which were by Maira Kalman. I thought in an instant, if I can't get my sisters to read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell as it was, according to them, too wordy - maybe this book will do the trick.

Fun Fact #3

Daniel Handler also has works under the pen name Lemony Snicket.

Lemony Snicket is the author of A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Haven't read this one, but I've seen the 2004 film.

Hoping to have my own library in the future.

A wanderer,

G.

P.S. Who else can remember the first book you read that made you fall in love?