By Daniella Djiogan
I have never been so much of a reader in the past. My theory was why look at more words on a page after spending days reading for a class, a test, etc.
To me reading for pleasure wasn’t logical… it didn’t make sense at all.
My head already spun when I set my eyes on the first page of a book, causing me to shut down and sleep.
To me reading was for school’s purpose, not leisure. Leisure meant spending time watching movies, dramas, YouTube videos…away from words.
In the past, I had spent some good amount of time defending my so called reason for not engaging in such an activity. And no matter what, I always believed myself to be right.
Yes, I rarely read a novel.
I did read occasionally for my English class, but such obligations didn’t follow me outside of class….until recently.
I had a discussion with a friend of my sister’s who as others, claimed reading for fun was “more amazing than watching movies based on the novel”…Harry potter, one of the most famous books out there was one of her stated examples. She claimed the book was better than the movie, and she was so certain of her opinion.
On the other hand, I couldn’t argue using this specific example of hers for the simple reason that I of course had never read the novel.
So naturally, I shifted the argument to my advantage by claiming that not everyone could have the same interest.
Plus, reading in and out of class wasn’t my forte.
As you can probably guess, the argument ended in disagreement, with her saying “I don’t just understand people who don’t read,” while I murmured the exact opposite under my breathe “I don’t understand those who do”.
That night, as I laid my eyes to rest, I had no other thoughts than…”I really don’t understand why people read…why???”
Fast forward to a few weeks later, I began increasingly curious after I remembered one thing she mentioned in our little conversation… “why don’t you start by reading something that interests you?”
I gave it another thought, and then I decided to try it out. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
I browsed through my interests and found that I really love history…for some reason. I always wanted to know more about the past, whether in a frictional or non-frictional perspective.
After surfing for about 30 minutes, I found and bought the only book I had once so craved “Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe.
When it arrived, I was so excited that that night, I opened its first pages, and I read and read.
Even when I couldn’t focus, I forced myself to go on. And it paid off…things started getting interesting…very interesting.
The last time I had read a book, I didn’t quite like it but now, here I was reading with a smile…enjoying every word and sentence. I was starting to fall in love slowly and surely.
And to make matters more interesting, the twist at the end of the novel really did spark some sort of feeling in me. A feeling I loved.
I have always hated tragedies, but the feeling of hatred and sadness mixed together with suspense was priceless…truly priceless.
Who knew I would ever enjoy reading? I bet no one saw it coming (at least not my family and close friends…hehe!)
Since that book, I have found it in myself to read…starting with books of my own interest. Hoping that in the future, my horizons will broaden as I view more of the world in the pages of a book.
OpinionHuis 
AHAH! CHINUA ACHEBE!
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