The sudden realization was immediately followed by a sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach, for I knew that I had no way to pass idle time while commuting, which takes a total of 3 to 4 hours of my time each day. This meant having to sit (or mostly, stand) through the dull monotony of traveling and waiting in line.
I almost turned around and went back home to grab the book, but I would have been late for work.
I am not exaggerating at all. Being an introvert, I've always loved to read ever since I knew how. Heck, before I could even read, I would look at the pictures in storybooks and just make up my own story. I still remember being able to finally read these stories for the first time. It was the most awesome feeling in the world.
In high school, I distinctly remember one of my classmates telling me, "Just watch the movie dude," when he saw me reading a book that had been already made into a motion picture. I guess he didn't understand why anyone would want to read for hours or even days when you could just see the movie and be thoroughly entertained in just a couple of hours.
And of course the answer lies in one's imagination. Oftentimes I've been disappointed by the movie version of a book because it didn't live up to the images that I had in my head and I could think of a number of ways to do it better.
And so I'm worried about the coming generations of kids who'll be more interested in the audio-visual stimulation provided by advanced technology than reading a book. We need future generations to be imaginative, creative, and inventive. And I don't see how that can happen when people outsource their imagination to computers.
A local billboard puts it in a nutshell: pagbasa. In Filipino, pagbasa means "reading" while pag-asa means "hope."
photo credits go to Mark Domingo
I seem to remember that classmate.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction now is the same as it was then: PUWEDE BA.
Miss you!
Mahar
Mahar! Haha! Out of all the high school memories, that's one of the few that's still so sharp in my mind. Weird!
DeleteGosh, I miss you too!
Same here. I only have to remember the movie version of Percy Jackson and I automatically cringe inside.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're writing again XD
Do you have the book? It's sort of on my reading list. Hehe.
DeleteAnd yeah, glad to be writing again. But right now I have lots of blogs to catch up on. XD