Filipino Friday 2: School of Reading

Another late post :P; this week's topic is School of Reading.

 

We all started reading somewhere, and more often than not, we were influenced by someone. Who got you into reading? Your parents? A friend? A librarian? One teacher who always lends out his/her books? How helpful was your school in helping your reading habit / fueling your book addiction?
 


My parents are not readers (unless it's the Bible for mother, and a newspaper for father), but I will forever be thankful that they encouraged the reader in me. It was my father who first taught me to read using this book (on the right), and posters and flashcards he made himself.



Some of my earliest and fondest memories of books were of A Child's First Library of Learning. I remember looking forward to the arrival of each volume every month, since my mother bought the series volume per volume from my nursery school teacher, Mrs. Lansangan. Mrs. Lansangan was the person who convinced my parents to enroll me in school at the young age of 4 years, so I have many things to be thankful to her for.

the 24 volumes of A Child's First Library of Learning

Another teacher stands out in my memory for turning me into even more of a literature lover - Mrs. Oblepias, one of my English teachers in high school. Because of her I read and loved "The Iliad" by Homer, "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, and "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo.

 

late 5th to early 6th century Iliad manuscript

From grade school to high school to college, the library was my favorite hangout. I am especially fond of my university's (old) Rizal Library, where I felt I had my own world inside my cubicle, with treasures in the shelves waiting for me to discover them.