I Fear for the Next Generation.
Because they no longer want to read books.
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THE MODERN HIDALGO: Entry_013
Written: Wednesday. July 17, 2019.
Maybe I should’ve started this journal entry when I still had the idea for what I was gonna write about. Damn. I had it awhile ago. Now it’s just gone. That’s sad.
Today is idea day, and I had so many ideas. But today was a bit random. I was able to do so much, surprisingly. Let’s talk about that.
I was able to read a lot of chapters with the book I’m currently reading. I said in the previous entries that I was having a very hard time trying to understand The Three Musketeers. But even if I’m doubling down on the reading of the book, I still could say that I definitely don’t understand what I’m reading.
And that’s all because of how complicated the translator made it for the reader. I can’t understand a single scene all because of the different rhythms of speeches and sentences that are present in the translation.
Enough of that, though. I wanna talk more about my trip to SM San Lazaro.
My mom had to go somewhere, which meant that we were left to deal with ourselves the rest of the day. Meaning we had to serve ourselves our meals. Which also meant that we would ultimately have to eat outside.
So that’s what I did. My dad gave me some money, and I used it to go to the mall. So that I could eat two slices of pizza at Pizza Hut. The buy 1 take 1 deal for 59 pesos.
That’s the one.
Whenever I go to the mall, any mall, I would always go directly to the book stores.
I find comfort in books. They seem to always invite me to pick them up and start reading the stories inside them.
I know that today isn’t really a BOOK topic day, but I’m getting to the IDEA portion of the journal entry. Just let me tell the story.
I went to National Book Store. And I would always spend more time browsing through the local books section. That means local authors. Filipino-written books.
Or in this case, collections of short stories. Because for some reason, we have more of those than actual full-length novels. I guess Filipinos don’t like to commit to a full blown novel, and go for short stories instead.
There’s this idea I’ve had in my mind since last year. It was after I had done the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) event video that I made for my Youtube Channel.
I realized that I didn’t have much when it came to local books.
Although I do have some. But compare it to the foreign books that I have, it’s nothing.
So that really bothered me that I wasn’t buying from the local section. It’s still bothering me. Mainly because Foreign Literature is more accessible to us Filipinos than our own literature.
That’s scary to me. It feels like we are doomed to fall victim to colonization, much like how our country was doomed many years ago.
A lot of bookstores don’t put the local books at the front of the store. They always seem to put it at the back. Where it’s very hard to locate. That’s just not right.
If there’s one bookstore that does put the local section in front of the store, it’s the National Book Store branch located at Trinoma.
They put the local books near the front of the store. It’s easy to go to, easy to browse for local books. And I get to discover new titles every time I go there.
The thing that haunts me whenever I go to bookstores though — especially when it comes to National Bookstore, is what I hear from other people who happen to browse through the store.
There was this one group of teenagers who were browsing the local section. But not the part of the local section that I was in. No.
They were browsing through the isle that had those Wattpad or Precious Hearts Romance “Novels”.
I wasn’t eavesdropping. Their voices were just loud. And I could hear what they were saying.
One said, “Ang daming books.” (There are so many books.)
Another one said, “Ay nabasa ko na toh.” (I’ve read this one.)
“Basahin mo toh.” (Read this.)
“Nako. Wala akong oras para magbasa.” (OMG. I don’t have time to read.)
That was just awhile ago. I hear a lot of other things from people.
There’s this one time, at Fully Booked, where a mom and her child came, and the mom told her child to hurry up. Or was it that she told her child, “Ang dami mo pang libro dun sa bahay. Di mo naman binabasa.” (You still have a lot of books at home. You don’t even read it.)
There’s also this one, that came from a kid. I was in Book Sale. The kid said, “Anong mabibili ko dito, Ma?” (What am I gonna buy here, Ma?)
The child was literally in the middle of a thousand books.
I don’t really wanna dive deep into that whole conversation. I at least have shared enough to hopefully make you start thinking of the bigger picture of things. And how the situation is right now, on what the youth prefer, and what they don’t have the time to even care about anymore.
The idea that I’ve had in my mind since last year, was that in the next Manila International Book Fair event, I would specifically buy local books.
Every peso I have for that week, I will dedicate it to buying Filipino-written literature. That’s what I wanna do.
It’s high time that I give a damn for our own pieces of art, culture, literature, tourist locations, every thing Filipino.
Yeah. That’s what I wanna do. And that’s what I’m gonna do.
I wanna live long enough to see that day when I get to hear children talking about how many books they’ve read, or the stories they’re writing about. I want them to talk about Rizal, Bulosan, Arguelles, Joaquin, Gourlay, Dalisay, Ninotchka, Arguilla, and many other Filipino writers out there.
And maybe even someday, about a particular Hidalgo.
Word of the Day : Macule.
- A macule or macula is a tiny blemish or spot. Likewise, something that is maculiferous is spotted, scarred, or blemished, and maculation is the act of staining or spotting something.
