My mother bought us books althroughout our childhood. There were storybooks of various sizes in either English or Filipino, mini illustrated dictionaries and encyclopedias and other illustrated educational materials. I think I read every book she bought, not once but multiple times.
At one point, my favorite was Gusto ko ng Pancit by Rene O. Villanueva (though I remember it as Paboritong Pagkain ni Didi), which I might have read everyday. It’s about a picky little girl who wanted to eat only her favorite food thrice a day. Most of our story books was by this author. Decades later, in that Panitikang Pambata class, he turns out to be the best Filipino children’s writer to whom no contemporary has even come close.
At another point, I was obsessed with legends. Adarna published tons of those. My mother would purchase some, and I’d find the rest in the school library I went to everyday after class before being fetched, using at least three library cards per semester. The obsession overflowed to writing. Soon, I was coming up with my own legends, and illustrating them on small pieces of bond paper stapled together afterwards. One I remember writing is the legend of Taal volcano, in which the character named Al finds the sun in a cave within a mountain.
Later in Panitikang Pambata, it'd be taught that legends are the most cliche and therefore most commercialized kind of literature being published, as publishing companies come up with legends about everything, because they're popular. It may not have been so prevalent during my childhood, but today, the bookshelves of the children’s section abound with legends published by different companies who follow the trend.
In second grade, we took up the bugtong. I was good at it because my mother had previously bought me a small book of it which I read and memorized, as it became another obsession. I could answer any of the common bugtong in circulation, even if some of those words were totally unfamiliar, like baluga, and yantok. In turn, I liked asking them. In my regular letters to my father, we exchanged bugtong and answers.
Later in Kasaysayan ng Panitikang Pilipino, it'd be taught that the bugtong is the oldest known piece of literature among the indigenous ethnic people, along with the salawikain or sawikain, which were passed on orally. Consequently, there exists different versions of the same bugtong in the different Philippine languages, and in different ethnic groups. And even during the colonial period, they continued to be created. A large collection of those, along with other Philippine folk literature, were compiled and published by Damiana Eugenio and are available in four UP Diliman libraries.
In the third grade, I discovered pocketbooks. My mother showed me a couple of books at home by Enid Blyton. I found some at the library, and so the multiple library cards per semester continued. Then, she told me about Nancy Drew, which I read, and Hardy Boys, which I didn’t read because male lead characters weren't interesting. And then, I learned from my friend, Jewel, her addiction with Boxcar Children, so I read. I think I also learned from her Sweet Valley High, which I read, but it didn’t make much an impression on me, except maybe in the fifth grade when I betrayed my best friend, possibly an influence from it. Then, my sister discovered Bailey School Kids and we read. There may have been a few more series I came across, though now forgotten. It was maybe this period when I started wishing to receive pocketbooks as presents, instead of toys, but seldom did. Since I had access to a library, my mother stopped buying us books for recreation.
It may have been in the fourth grade when I discovered my favorite series of all time: The Baby-sitters’ Club by Ann M. Martin. It's about teenagers who run a baby-sitting club, and their teenage lives. I read what was available of the series in the library, and waited for new books when I was done. I kept a list of which of the series I’ve read and not read. Later, I’d ask my sister to borrow the other books in her school library. When our class opened a mini classroom library, and some girls in the class had these books, I was delighted. It was this period when I began recording my favorite parts of books. I kept a notebook especially for the purpose of copying baby-sitting tips. I tried applying those tips when watching over my sisters and cousins. The Baby-Sitters’ Club was my only favorite until high school.
In the fifth grade, this comics rose to popularity: W.I.T.C.H. I borrowed my friends’ copies. I tried drawing the characters, traced them on my notebooks. I copied the magazine tests. It was timely. This was the first time I had a group of girl friends.
The girl genre overflowed into writing. When I couldn’t get a hold of any more books or comics, I began my first novel attempt which was, of course, about a group of girl friends. It was never finished, never going beyond the character sketches, literally with illustrations. The main character’s name was Hazel, the second name of a popular schoolmate who was in her senior year when I was a freshman. I used to like her name (and her younger brother).
High school was a drop in my reading rate. I stopped going to the library to hang out with my barkada, a different one from my fifth grade girl group. English and Filipino subjects forced us to read for reading reports, but they weren’t as successful as my mother in making me (and most other students) read. I liked reading, but I don’t remember finishing any of the required novels (I actually finished some, just can't remember which), not even Noli and El Fili. I took book quizzes without finishing the assigned chapters. However, it was a book I read for a final book report in the fourth year that determined my future.
I first saw Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarner in the bookstore in the sixth grade. The summary was intriguing, but the price was too much so I didn’t dare to ask it bought. In the summer before fourth year high school, I saw it again. Since there had never been a copy of it in the libraries I’ve been to, I made my mother buy it. I read it that summer, without finishing it. I reread it for my book report, also without finishing it. But even without the ending, it already made a huge impact, that when I qualified DPWAS (Degree Program with Avaliable Slot) in Diliman, I put philosophy as my third choice. Had it not been for that book, it would've been B.A. Psych on that form and everything would’ve turned out differently.
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