As a kid born in the 80s, I have had the chance to play and experience pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons. I remember the times where we used to fabricate stories of our quests that are wild and so spontaneous that sometimes our characters would even die.
Before then, I hated books. I hated reading. I wanted everything there to be consumed (e.g. pictures, video. etc.). As a result, the only "books" that I would have are textbooks from school and comics from DC and Marvel. I didn't have many as they were expensive and I was in grade school when the only money you had was from your allowance.
Luckily enough, I have had some classmates that were more fortunate than I was. I could at least borrow and read them during our break at school. Then it was this one day that one of my classmates brought to school a luggage. In it was books and manuals of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). I was astonished. The binding, the artwork, the fonts and the glossy paper.
But then it hit me, what is it? What do we do with it? There's not much pictures and there's lots of text! This was what my 10-year-old self was thinking. Then he explained everything and said it was a game where we imagine everything based on some guidelines and we'll be "role-playing" heroes. I tell you, when a kid hears that he can BE a hero, he or she will listen.
Ever since then, we've played it for hours on end, even coming over a classmate's house just to play D&D on the weekends. That was really fun and this time around I didn't mind reading lengthy portions of text. I really think that this was the beginning of my zest for reading.
Then all other things came over such as Choose Your Own Adventure books. It's also a kind of role-playing game but in the form of a book and you choose from a predetermined set of choices that leads to success or consequence. To me, it was reading pleasure but little did I know that it also improved my English!
That was it for me. I started to discover a more broader range of literature. History and Literature class was now officially my favorite subjects in class. I started to buy more books in college. When I finally got a job, I had scouted for older books from thrift shops. The more older the books are, the better for me.
I started getting books that dated from the 50s, different editions of what I already have and some books I have never had the chance to read when I was a kid. My collection grew and grew until I had a real need for bookshelves which my McGyver of a dad especially made for me.
I have recently learned a new language when I moved in to european shores. French. This again opened a whole new world of literature to me. A long time favorite of mine, Tintin, happens to be made by a Belgian sometime in the 50s. I have reread every book again all in french and it was magnificent. Other books that has also peaked my interest are Les Aventures de Sylvie, by René Philippe and L'île aux Fossils Vivants by André Massepain.
I have yet to read more older french literature later on as I have not yet attained the master level of the language yet. It's been roughly a year that I've started to learn French. The next step to my book journey would by my dream to write and publish my own book(s).
Me and a friend has yet to finish that book and this blog space could be its temporary home.
