A LIBRARIAN friend has organized a reading club in Roxas City.
He has requested me to give a video message for the group.
Of course, I said yes.
Because again, Why not?
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This friend recently won the Peter’s Prize for Literature (Excellence in Writing Children’s Stories).
Although the title of Ambassador for Literature (or other art categories) is normally just awarded to the top winners, most of the Peter’s Prize winners often act as ambassadors of their field.
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So yeah, I’m very proud of all the Peter’s Prize winners for their personal advocacies.
And even more so for those mission and causes that promote literature and the arts.
Those advocacies that align with the mission-vision of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc.
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Now, I’m pretty mobile these days.
I’ve been driving from Los Angeles to Sacramento, and back.
From Los Angeles to San Diego, and back.
I’ve gone sailing, hiking, and all the good stuff.
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As you read this, I could already be in Vancouver, Canada.
Because, Why not?
My mind is in full writing mode.
But I just don’t have the time to sit down and write.
So, here’s sharing that message for the book reading club.
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Hello, officers, members, and organizers of the Capiz State University – Roxas City Campus Library, Virtual Reading Club.
I am Peter Solis Nery, and it is my honor to address you as you begin your journey as a book club.
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I think that you are very lucky to have this opportunity to read books, discuss them, and have an opinion.
It is an opportunity that is not available to other students and book lovers all over the world today, or to people like me in the past century.
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The reading of books is like a great secret to success.
If you can name one person who liked to read and didn’t succeed in life, please let me know.
I need to make a list.
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On the other hand, I don’t need to list down successful people who will testify that they loved to read.
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Reading helps you with language — whether as a speaker, writer, audience, or even as… well, a reader.
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We all know how poor the reading comprehension of Filipinos these days.
It’s because the young people are lazy to read.
There’s no other explanation for it.
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We are all consumed by the visual and auditory sensations in the Internet and social media.
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But reading books not only improves our comprehension.
It also fuels our imagination.
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And we need imagination to deal with our current realities.
And to envision the future.
And to imagine the solutions to our contemporary difficulties.
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As reading improves your language and imaginative or creative faculties, so you may decide to speak or write. And you will speak and write better than the others, more distinctly than the others.
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Understand that writing and speaking proficiently or clearly is often the hallmark of great leaders and innovators.
Because it is with words and ideas that we move and convince other people.
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The books you read will move you.
And you are free to borrow ideas from these books so that you too may move other people.
Improve on the ideas that you read.
(You do not need to plagiarize.)
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It is good that you have a reading club so that you can weed out the bad books, the cheap books, the mediocre books, the books on Wattpad and questionable sources.
Because what good is reading if you are reading garbage?
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If you are to waste your time on reading—and trust me, reading is never a waste of time, please use your time on a good book, a classic, a book that has made other people successful.
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Because I can tell you right now, if Wattpad and mediocre writing is all you can read, you will not ever be successful.
Or, if I will be proved wrong, you need to contact me again.
Because I need a new list.
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Meanwhile, enjoy your books.
Enjoy reading. Enjoy your club.
As the pandemic has taught us, you only live once.
Why waste it on ignorance?
Or in reading crap?
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I am Peter Solis Nery, and I am an avid book reader!/PN
