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My Oldest Book!


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I was ten attending my first school function (normally skipped them for an evening at home) and it was annual school day and they called out my name. Out of the blue, there it was, my name on the mike, through the speakers and into my ears. I sat shell shocked wondering if it was my overactive imagination playing games in my head, but no, I saw my teacher basically telling me to get my butt up on stage.

I was being rewarded with a prize. How grand! For months, that moment lingered in my head, like an echo. I had of course, unwrapped my present in a flurry on the way to KFC that I was rewarded with by my parents for being an achiever and to my dismay it was a book. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and worse still, on the right hand side it read: Complete and Unabridged.

This meant, I couldn't understand very much past the first page given the language was much too complicated for me at age ten. It would take me two long years before I could read the book. In those two years I read while I ate, under the covers in bed, while I was on the way to school, everywhere. I consulted the school librarian, to find me books that were a bit advanced. I read them too, and then I went two levels up. And yet, the first page did not make sense to me.

Then I started underlining words I did not understand, checked the dictionary, paid a bit more attention in English class and finally the day came when I finished the book. The story was fascinating, out of the world and nothing like I had ever read before. I decided then, that I would write stories. What followed then, was mad writing. And well, it still hasn't ended.

The reason this book is so precious to me, is because it's made me the person I am today. It was a present for achievement, and yet, with it I achieved so much much more. Who would I give it to? No one, it's mine to keep forever. It's a reminder to me, that not all things are easy at first glance, and sometimes, it's those elusive hard to achieve goals that are the most rewarding of all!
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Comments

Sh@s said…
Good one. True, some books do have a lasting effect on us.
November 28, 2010 9:10 pm
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