They say the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem. So yes, I have a problem. Im an addict, a reading addict.

I’ve been blogging haphazardly for 3 years now, and Ive had about 6 blogs, some I’ve only recently updated. Ive read blogs though (like I said, Im a reading addict). Im a perpetual lurker, making comments in my head but not bothering to write anything down. Thats the downside of a reader, I guess. I read faster than I write, and mt time is too consumed by reading to bother with editing and organizing my thoughts clearly enough to be put on paper, or in this case, the world wide web.

Anyway, like all therapy sessions, let me start by telling how I got hooked into reading. I read in school sure, but my addiction started when I was about 7 and I read the monkey and the tortoise. It was from a grade 6 textbook. My mom asked me to read it and I enjoyed the story so much I continued reading all the stories from the book. From then on, I’d start reading all the stories in my reading book the moment my mom got them for me. So maybe a week or two into the start of classes, i’d have finished reading all the stories in my books. I wasn’t a geek though, I don’t like reading science or history books, they were too boring. I loved the stories about people, places and dreams.

So anyway it started with my reading text books, then came comic books, then the pocketbooks. Oh, the pocketbooks. By grade 4, I was already reading sweet dreams, and yes, Harlequin novels my stored in the package she gave me. And yes, I have to admit to having that one dark skeleton in my closet. When I was in grade 5… I read tagalog novels. Yes, I read them (my classmate’s sister had a collection). So I was already reading those books in class, during boring class discussions.

Then came highschool, and required readings (I have to admit that I didnt like the classics until I was in 3rd year, something about being forced to read old english for a specific number of days and being required to write about it drained away my interest quickly). This was the time I discovered C.Pike, Sweet Valley series, Lovestories, and Judith McNaught. I remembered being called for a meeting by my adviser because of my tendency to read during class hours, not reviewing for exams because of reading and the general decline of my grades. That was the time I started to read under the covers, with a flashlight, because my parents always looked to see if my lights were on late at night.