I sneaked into my sister's room and encountered a paperback book.
Because I had a large family, I didn't have my own room as a child. When I was at home, I mostly spent time in the 6-tatami living room, which was called the "TV room," but sometimes I would go to my two older sisters' rooms.
Sometimes I'd be allowed to laze around in my sister's room, but sometimes if she was in a bad mood she'd be told to "stay out of the way." Then, all of a sudden, she'd be summoned back to my room and asked which of two outfits looked better on me, or to listen to two Western songs I couldn't quite understand and be asked which one moved me more. When I had no choice but to choose one, my sister would mutter, "Oh, really..." with a dissatisfied look on her face, and then, having finished with me, I'd be kicked out of her room again.
Even so, I would often sneak into my sister's room when she wasn't home, because I found "From Today, It's My Turn!!" and "SLAM DUNK" on her bookshelf. On holiday afternoons when the only programs on TV were golf games and TV shopping shows, I would lie down on her bed and read manga. Since we weren't allowed to turn on the air conditioner on our second-floor room, the heat from the setting sun would build up, making me sweat and feel uncomfortable.
But I didn't have any desire to get up and do anything. As for "From Today, It's Me!!", I read it over and over again so many times that I thought maybe I could win if there was a "From Today, It's Me!! King Tournament" on TV Champion someday. It's not that I particularly wanted to read it so many times, but there was nothing else I wanted to read. Even as an elementary school student, I felt that it was a huge waste of time.
I was getting tired of reading "From Today, It's My Turn!!" out of habit, so I tried my hand at other manga on my bookshelf, but as an elementary school student, I couldn't really understand the appeal of "Go! Inachu Table Tennis Club" or Atsushi Kaneko's manga.
There were a few paperbacks on the bookshelf, but I avoided books with small print because I thought they were for adults. Still, I wanted to read something other than "From Today, It's My Turn!!," so the first book I picked up was "Momoko's Animal Encyclopedia." It was written by the author of "Chibi Maruko-chan," and each episode was only a few pages long, so it seemed like a low hurdle even for someone like me who had never read a paperback before.
I think the first one I read was about someone who picked up an injured sparrow or Java sparrow and kept it for a while. It was the first time I laughed out loud while reading a book. It was a heartwarming essay about living creatures, but each episode was sprinkled with a poignant tone, which was fresh to me at the time.
I had no idea that I could find a book that wasn't written for children so interesting. Encouraged, I went to the local library and borrowed and read all of Momoko Sakura's essays. I also became obsessed with Shinichi Hoshi 's Whimsical Robot and Munenori Harada's I Bought This Thing, which I had on my bookshelf, and read almost all of their related works.
Perhaps I'm lucky to have had the original experience of reading books out of boredom, not because reading is recommended. Nowadays, I naturally think, "I'm going to read a book because I'm afraid browsing the internet all the time will make me stupid," but I still have the nagging feeling that this is not the true meaning of reading. I sometimes remember that room and bookshelf, where it seemed like time had stopped. When I read a book, I want to have the same feelings I had back then.
