In first grade, I used to make up books on my reading logs because I could not bring myself to skim through the dreaded 20-page-long children’s books I had in my house. I would put random names down on the author line and create my own story. Looking back, I am sure I put more effort into creating a fake book than it would have taken just to read a short story but my seven-year-old self had a seven-year-old brain that was barely developed. I do not know if my teacher ever noticed (or maybe she didn’t care) but I was never pulled aside to discuss my faulty logs. Of course, the consequence of this, I never reached my Accelerated Reader (AR) goals in any grade in elementary school.Â
The first match to the flame was during sixth grade when I started to read A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), a series of thirteen books about unfortunate events experienced by three siblings that unravel through the novels. For the first time, I would lose track of time while reading. My imagination flourished with each turning page and for once, I read purely for entertainment, not for a grade. I became obsessed with one of the main characters, Violet, and started to wear ribbons as hair ties. I found myself gushing about the series to my parents and friends, to which one of my closest friends then offered me to borrow one of her favorite books, the Christy Miller Collection by Robin Jones Gunn. If you know anything about either of these series, you know the genres and plots are polar opposites. I was curious to see if I would enjoy a coming-of-age, light-hearted series in contrast to a dark, mystery series.Â
Well, I did. I did not just “like” the Christy Miller Collection, I loved it so much that I decided to explore more coming-of-age books. Eventually, my eyes landed on the book At Night, I Become a Monster by Yoru Sumino. I read a few of her books, including the bittersweet I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, and heartfelt I Had That Same Dream Again, before I picked this one up. The book centers around a schoolboy who turns into a monster at night and while in monster form, is befriended by his outcast female classmate. It has elements of coming-of-age, mystery, betrayal, fantasy, and the beauty of unexpected friendships all mixed together. It was my golden ticket. To this day, At Night, I Become a Monster is my all-time favorite book. While the books before showed me how magical reading is, this book truly spoke to my soul and made me want to buy a million books to chase the feeling of what I experienced while reading it.Â
My newfound love of books opened up an entire world to me. At the ripe age of 15, I became a hopeless romantic after reading more romance books than I should have. Although, I would be lying if I said that romance is not one of my favorite genres to this day. On my desk, currently, three out of the four books on display are romances.
Now every year on the day Santa comes along, my grandmother buys me a year of Kindle Unlimited which I am incredibly grateful for. Yet, I still buy physical books at bookstores, especially local bookstores, because I refuse to let ink on paper be a lost art. One of my favorite hobbies outside of reading is telling all my friends about the books I’m reading. Like Belle, I am happy to have my head always stuck in a book.
If I were to meet my seven-year-old self (who liked Belle but could not relate to her passion), I can only imagine what the conversation would be like.Â
