A few months ago, I found myself lurking in the aisles of National Bookstore, hoping to find great books that could nourish and provide wisdom to my striving soul. I’ve always been a free-thinker and lately, I got tired of the cut-and-dried people who incessantly feed imbecility to my precious mind and so I decided to resort on spending my time on the pages of brilliant books hoping that one day I may experience a paradigm shift not in a scientific way as described by Thomas Kuhn but a change from way of thinking to another with divine providence. On a personal note, I think that as human beings, for us to be able to consummate our existence here on earth, we should constantly seek for wisdom, may it be on the mundane conversations that we have with different people, from the books that we read or from the responsibilities that each and every one of us take into account.
I was standing close to the front table on the main aisle of the bookstore when I saw the book “Twilight”, I don’t know anything about the book but it was tagged as New York Times Best Seller so I chose to take it and read the synopsis at the back. After reading it, I wasn’t convinced to buy the book. I was hoping for something else and I wasn’t really looking for a book on a love story genre. So I made more searches and bought Scarlett Letters and Catcher in the Rye. For some reason, there was this prodigious force that led me to the table where “Twilight” was displayed, so I went back there and read the synopsis again. I was taken aback because there was something inside me trying to convince myself to get the book. So I told myself, I guess it isn’t so bad since I am fascinated with vampires, perhaps I can give it a shot but then I still thought that I will find something better. So I walked through every aisle in the bookstore scanning each genre and trying to find a catchy title, I even asked for anything from Carl Sagan but nothing was available. And then at some point, my feet dragged me again at the table where “Twilight” was displayed so I thought of reading the synopsis of the three books following the saga. I read them in order, first was “New Moon” then “Eclipse” and the last one was “Breaking Dawn”. And so I finally decided to get “Twilight”.
I sat down at Starbucks and started reading Twilight, while waiting for Aldolito. And there I found myself mesmerized and utterly engrossed to the novel. I was thrilled and anxious to read the subsequent pages and so page after page I was so consumed that I had to go back to the bookstore and bought the second book New Moon. Quite unbelievably, I finished reading the book at 4 AM. I bought the last two books after 3 days. I was utterly bonkers over Twilight. The writer, Stephenie Meyer created such exceptional and remarkable characters which constructed a virtual world where these characters were ostensibly real. And I just recently watched the movie.
Absurdity annoys me because during the time when I was reading the four books, most of the people whom I know asked me how are they. I told them how crazy I am over the books and that they should just read them for them to find out what I’m talking about. It’s just stupid that some people like to pretend in a form of cynicism, showing discrimination on books about Love. I remember someone said “hmmp ayaw ko niyan Love Story eh” (I don’t want that because it’s a love story) but lately, most of them are dying to borrow the books from me since the movie hit the box office and everyone is practically talking about it. You shouldn’t be ashamed of yourself if people see you reading a book about love. Instead, you should be ashamed of yourself for being pretentious. You pretend to not like the book just because someone you know read it first but now that everyone is talking about it and it hits the big screen, suddenly you are dying to read it just like the rest of the world. It isn’t cool, you annoy me downright.
