The Spark Project [12]: Veronica

The Spark Project is a semi-regular blog feature where a reader and/or book blogger is invited to talk about that one book that sparked his/her interest in books and reading. He/She will tell us about the what-when-where-why-and-how of this topic, how his/her reading habits have evolved since encountering that book, and so on. Wouldn't it be fun and interesting as well to know how a fellow book lover discovered the wonderful world of books? :)

For this particular installment of The Spark Project, I am very honored and grateful to have our good friend from the book club, Veronica (personally, I call her Miss Ronnie), talk about the book that sparked her love for reading.

I have always been fascinated with the stories that Miss Ronnie has to share about her life during our book club discussions and/or meet-ups. Because she has more life experiences to share than most of us, it is always interesting to hear about her little anecdotes – my personal favorites are the ones she shares about her childhood and her family. Everyone in the book club loves Miss Ronnie – I can’t think of one person who doesn’t. :)

(1) What is the one book that sparked or kindled your love for reading? Describe the circumstances in which you found or discovered it.

I wish I could say the one book that inspired me to become a reader was a classic or something more literary but here it is.

This was the very first book I owned that had more words than pictures. It was a Christmas present from my parents when I was seven and I loved it to pieces. It had the most beautiful illustrations and I would carry it with me everywhere I went. (I realize now that I must have looked silly as this was a huge book.) What I loved about it was that I could sit in one corner, open the book and without fail, the stories and pictures would transport me to faraway worlds and my imagination would take me even further. I knew then that what I wanted to do most was to explore those wonderful worlds and books were my greatest allies.

It was around this time that I discovered the school library, thanks to my sister whose classes ended about two hours after mine. I used to hang out in the library and go through all the book series available. I still have fond memories of them of those afternoon sojourns.

Years ago, when I did some major spring cleaning, I discovered my old grade school notebooks. It made me laugh to see that some of my notebooks had book lists at the back page. In my childish scrawl, I made lists of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series, the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew and placed a checkmark beside those I had read. In high school, my back-of-the-notebook lists were for Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse. Well, I guess this compulsive list maker had an early start.


(2) How has it affected you - both your life in general and as a reader?




In a way, I am still like that seven-year-old, ever anxious to satisfy her curiosity for people and places yet undiscovered. To my dying day, I will to continue to learn. That’s why I enjoy being part of TFG. Apart from the wonderful friendships I have reaped, it exposed me to a slew of genres and books I would not have read previously.

So what happened to that young list maker? She still has a monster of a TBR list that is called The Ultimate List (a.k.a. Books Other People Say I Should Read).

Even if I had my nose in a book for the rest of my life, that ever growing list will defy completion. But I’m okay with that. At my age, I have made peace with the “so many books, so little time” dilemma. I don’t feel the need to finish off the list. It remains to be a reference point but I choose to read what I want to read and I’m just happy to have many options. “Happy” being the operative word. I know, for the rest of my life, I will always have a book to read and that is a good place to dwell. Someone once said, “Home is where my books are."

And there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

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Thank you, Miss Ronnie, for taking the time out to do this and, more importantly, for agreeing to do it in the first place! :)