If I’ve got nothing else to do, you would probably catch me reading in one corner. That is, if I have nothing else to do. But being a mom, it’s such a difficult ordeal to find time to do other things aside from home management and child rearing. I haven’t had a maid for more than two years now. It’s a personal choice since I really wanna be hands-on with my children. Aside from that, it’s hard to find house help you could trust. So, it’s all me when it comes to cleaning, cooking, laundry or just everyday errands.

Reading is one of the many things I miss doing ever since I had my second baby. I used to read at least 2-3 books a week. I would stay up late just to finish a novel then would start immediately with another one upon waking up. One of the books I enjoyed reading was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I think anyone who has read the book would understand if I say that it’s not an easy read. Not because it’s hard to understand. For a regular reader like me who reads for leisure, the small text and the more than half a million words of the book is quite a challenge. Last I heard, this was made into a movie and is yet to be shown this year. It stars Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart, the female lead character.

The love for reading came to me when I chanced upon the novels of Sydney Sheldon in my search for a better read. I used to settle for fashion and gossip magazines when I decided that it was time to move on and widen my horizon. Suddenly, Julia Roberts’ big hair, Demi Moore’s boyish cut, platforms and Doc Martens, Beverly Hills 90210 TV series, and the grunge look became unappealing. I was ready for a change. I was lucky having discovered Sheldon’s books first. Sydney Sheldon is a brilliant storyteller. If it had been another author, I wouldn’t have the same passion as I have now. And there was no turning back since then. I became a constant visitor of bookstores and would check out bestseller lists. As I got older, my preference evolved. I began choosing from different genres–classics, self-help, philosophy, travel, mystery, biography and autobiography, women issues etc…

The good thing about reading is you can let your imagination run wild. Not too wild, I guess. You don’t experience this when watching movies. Our imagination is restricted to what we see on the screen. Of course, building your vocabulary, expanding your knowledge, improving your readings skills are among the many advantages we can derive from reading. But, the most important thing is to make reading a pleasure rather than a chore. I suggest one should read books with topics she enjoys before switching to other subjects that are more difficult.

I just finished a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera. It took me a month to read it in between household chores, changing diapers and emergency whatnots. It’s a novel about two young lovers, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino Ariza with his letters to Fermina did not succeed in winning the heart of the latter. Instead, Fermina married Dr. Juvenal Urbino. The marriage could be seen as unhappy at times and happy the next. It could even be illustrated as the appropriate destiny for her. People viewed them as the perfect couple. Florentino, on the other hand, had his share of “relationships” but remained single. He vowed that his heart would only belong to Fermina whose image lingered as the “love” of his youth. In the end, the two people found each other in the waning twilight of their days and soon realized that they were completely different people from the young lovers they once have been.

It’s a story about love experienced in youth with all its innocence and the love in one’s concluding years, more serene but both filled with the same degree of passion. Moreover, it’s a love triangle–Florentino loses his only love, Fermina to Dr. Urbino but in the end, finds her again. There’s also a lot of sex courtesy of Florentino Ariza. One of which, the last one with America, I find distasteful. I really don’t like the the character of Florentino Ariza. It seems he has many contradictions and his views on love somewhat distorted. But all in all, it’s a very compelling read with colorful characters as rich and interesting as the South America setting.

Go buy the book now or wait for the DVD release of the movie this May.