My love affair with reading
& tales from the internet
Hi!
Welcome back, I hope you're well. Thanks for clicking on your email—or the instagram link I posted. This is my first post after introducing myself to the world (hi) and I'm overwhelmed by everyone's positive comments. So I just wanted to say a quick thank-you before you start reading <3.
It started on Youtube
I've always been a bookish person; but don't get me wrong, my interest for reading books didn't happen after watching this documentary. It did, however, start with the yearly Scholastic Bookfair that was at my school. During recess, we'd see the collapsable bookshelves assembled and books already in place. It was close proximity to the canteen and coincidentally where we had to line up, so this book fair was hard to miss. Standard protocol are as follows: we would check the books out and when we got home, we'd ask our parents for money to buy a book (or two) the next day.
And in my conscious mind, my love affair with books started with an obsession with Geronimo Stiltson — I don't know when, I just remember having 24 books already by third grade. And this later matured on to my YA novels stage, where I read the ultimate, best-of-the-best teenage girl classics like Twilight, The Maze Runner, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games. Then we (embarrassingly) conclude with a brief interlude of reading solely fan-fiction (BTS alpha-omega verse smut anyone?) where I probably got too aroused excited with the content.
So I've been an avid reader my whole life, and I loved fiction more than anything. But reading soon became an obligation. I read so actively in University; I cross-referenced everything, I found out which authors influenced which authors who influenced the authors of this age. And although it was academic, and fun, and cool, and interesting… I never read what I wanted. I read what was tasked to read and I never gave my mind a break.
So when this all stopped A.K.A., I gRaDuaTed, my natural and yet, delayed, inclination was to read. My reading journey got a boot-up after getting stressed. In the hours we spend using social media, there are probably 30 books of worthless shit sitting in our brains as we speak. I hate that with a burning passion. I'm sorry but I usually judge instagram stories (my own included) and I hate knowing dumb shit about someone I don't really care about. And there's probably chapters upon chapters of this person's life stored in my brain. If could just replace some of my social media time, with reading at least 30 minutes a day, I would be unstoppable.
I'll leave the rest of the tricks for you to watch. But it was with the stress, the awe, my new found confidence and inspiration, was when I stared at my bookshelf with all the books I ever bought and I picked up Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore.
The evils of bookstagram & other stories
I read three books in 2019, twelve for 2020, and twenty-three in 2021. The first question on your mind is probably, how does she know which books to read? (If this wasn't the question on your mind pretend that it was). It's been a mix, really, and trying to concise years of tumblr books, goodreads recommendations, and random recommendations, would be annoying. The easy answer, is I've read (and bought) the trendy books.
Trendy books are the ones everyone says that should be on your top 100 books to read before you die and has thousands upon thousands of 4.5 stars and up rave reviews. The ones where every angle of the book has made its way on your for-you page or instagram timeline, with the long reviews of how this book absolutely touched their lives. And yes, sometimes the hype is worth the hype. My favourite trendy books are A Tale for a Time Being, A Secret History, Pachinko, Six of Crows, and Circe. But other times it's just a big ole flop (The Cartographers…)
Essentially the trendy books will keep you going and keep you excited… but if you're like me and now you have a massive TBR of must-reads to yet read, I'm straying away for now. And this isn't to blame bookstagram, it’s to blame social media as a whole. Everyone just wants to read what everyone else is reading so I should too, right? Wrong. We've just gotten so used to our timelines and our algorithms to suggest what to do (read) next that we never really look elsewhere for content and inspiration.
I'm still on my quest to read diversely and to read widely, after-all thats the reason we read— to learn about other people's experiences. I found TheArtisanGeek, who I imagine I would really vibe with, and I watched her video on diverse classics. Have you ever thought about diverse and classics being in the same sentence? And after a few minutes (spoiler-alert), she shows us a book from a Filipino author, Nick Joaquin. After that, I decided to entrust my life to reading what she has read. Which is just a dramatic way of saying, I was impressed.
But from the time I found her channel to right now, as of writing, I haven't really committed to reading non-trendy books at any point in my life. So now I am. I want to tackle my ever-growing TBR and I want to ready widely, and diversely and develop a better reading habit. These days I've been into South-American Literature, probably because I'm also motivated to read in Spanish, and that I've been seeing Mexico City all over my timeline, and that I ate at an Argentinian restaurant — it's just been calling me.
Confessions
I haven't really watched the documentary again in so long, I re-watched it today (like the day you'll get this e-mail) and I'm still inspired by it. I forgot the meat of the interviews, and only remembered their mention of the Literary Man Hotel in Obidos, and the 30 mins a day guy. But what was really magical for me (as I now finish watching this documentary on 2x speed) is at the end when Dr. Ruth J. Simmons said “I'm more convinced that it is the reading widely that matters than anything else.” Probably some part of my brain retained that information and that's why I wrote about my quest to read diversely, but seeing that just now felt validating. Like… I'm not the only one frustrated with it slash this is not just a modern-day frustration brought about by the internet. It's a thing. I hope I can influence you think about these things too.
And now I leave you with what I’m ... at the moment
Reading
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis translated by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
The Power and Necessity of Reading Books that Reflect Our Communities
Watching
Gilmore Girls
The French Dispatch
Listening
Touch the Sky - Kanye West
10% - KAYTRANADA
All The Colours of You - James
Palace/Curse - The Internet, Steve Lacy, Tyler, The Creator,
What Once Was - Her's
It Runs Through Me - Tom Misch, De La Soul
Kiss In The Sun -THREE1989
I love your mind
Loved it 🫰