day 30 | my favorite book of all time. OF ALL TIME!

As consistent as always, I am late to the party! Yay me!

Well, I severely underestimated the work I had to put in for Thursday and Friday. I got home late both days and I was extra tired on Friday because I had to keep running up and down the stairs. BUT HEY. I guess it's finally time to end this book challenge!

Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time.

I believe I am justified in taking so long to write this entry. No I'm not. But it's just so fucking difficult thinking about your ALL-TIME favorite book! At this point in my life I have read up to quite possibly 300 books (not counting required reading and anthologies), and now I have to pick ONE? Just ONE?

All of the books I have read take up special places in my heart, some spaces more prominent than others but I love them all the same. So it's really hard for me to pick just one! It's like making someone choose their favorite child! So I think I'll write about the book that started it all:

Beverly Cleary - Beezus and Ramona.

My book-loving journey began at a very young age. When I first learned how to read, I read EVERYTHING. I distinctly remember my parents telling me to shut up because I read every single sign that we passed on the road and I just had to relay the information. I remember reading the "Keyway" label on a food storage box, and for some reason my mother was very impressed that I could read "key" right. I remember reading the sign that says "thank you come again" and I pronounced "again" as "ah-GAH-een".

I guess at that time, I enjoyed reading because I was finally becoming more knowledgeable and independent, in a way. I didn't have to ask adults to read labels for me anymore, or ask them what a passage says, because I could read it for myself. I enjoyed reading so much that my grandfather (bless his heart) decided to buy me a collection of fairytale picture books and a huge, HUGE dictionary. I treasured those items. I read the fairytales over and over and used the dictionary countless times to look up all sorts of words.

But I could say that my book reading journey officially began with this book.

I forgot at exactly what age I read this, but I'm sure I was less than 8 years old. My uncle has a lot of these books from his own childhood days and still likes buying and giving books to his nephews and nieces. For a book that's pretty important to me, you might find it strange that I don't know where I got it. It might have been a gift or I might have pulled it off my uncle's bookshelf at random.

One thing's for sure: reading this book changed my life.

Big statement right there, but it's true! Especially for a 7 year old kid whose idea of fun was to go outside and roll around the concrete. Picking up this book really brought a change in me. I realized that reading can bring you to places, it shows you that there are people going through the same things as you are, and that nothing is more vibrant than your own imagination.

Time has passed and I've moved on from Beverly Cleary to Sweet Valley High, from slice of life stories to swashbuckling fantasy, from books with huge fonts and hundred pages to tomes amounting to days of reading. I think I wouldn't be the reader that I am today if I didn't realize early on how fun reading is, and it's all thanks to this book. It might not be the best, or the most memorable, but it's super special to me and thus deserves this spot.

AND THAT'S IT OMAYGAAAAAAAAAAAWD *dances*

At this point, I'm going to go back to updating once or twice a week, instead of everyday. I'm trying to come up with sections on this blog! Any suggestions? Hit me up on the comments!