Num: Reading for fun

When I was in elementary school, I learned how to read the Thai alphabet. I’m not really sure whether I was good at it. However, I remember vividly that I would read a Thai language book, Manee Mana, every day, and there were beautiful graphics inside. I read every day without getting tired. This routine happened without any requests from parents or teachers. One day when I was reading, my heart was torn apart and eyes full of tears because the horse in the book died. I am positively sure that many people in my generation could remember that episode. Now, I have just realized that those experiences were reading for pleasure. The peak moment of reading for pleasure would be in my early teenage years; I was obsessed with manga. 

After the end of the day at school, I hung out with friends at a mini comic stall and got a recommendation from the seller. Aa terrific person, she read every manga she sold. I was surprised that she remembered all the books she sold. The main reason that I was obsessed with it would be the variety of emotions that had developed along the reading journey. I was excited when it reached the climax, tears fell down easily when the protagonist lost their loved one, I giggled when my beloved characters did clumsy things that led them into awkward situations. Hundreds of books were brought home with excitement. The satisfaction of peeling the plastic packages, the sound of tearing it apart is still clear in my mind. The moment that I had completed a collection of a famous series of manga almost at the same time as other Japanese manga fans was fantastic. Another outstanding reason is its dramatic constructions with graphics attached. Reading along with beautiful graphics helps me imagine the world of the story more clearly. With various sizes of graphic ranging from wide shorts to close up triggers a different attention in us. Some sizes of frames highlight the expression of protagonists. Another series of different graphic sizes can connect emotional dots of readers together, and being visualised, stories can strengthen three act structures. For example, close up shot can express the emotion and action of a character better, or wide shots can create a sense of loneliness.    

Today I don’t read manga anymore because movies please me more vividly through motion pictures plus sound. The experience of watching for pleasure is what I am sticking with. However, I still recall my remarkable memories of what fun I had when I read Manga in my youth.