Alice didn’t just fall down the rabbit hole just because she was clumsy. She fell down the hole and wandered through the magical place because of her curiosity. Everything begins with a simple reason. Even our habit of reading—or maybe just hoarding books—began somewhere. It might be a school requirement, a cute cover, or just plain curiosity.

In hopes of sparking our love for reading again, we, the Scout team, look back to the books that led us to the habit of reading—or just flipping pages.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Back in sixth grade, all my friends were obsessed with the Nancy Drew series. I found it interesting, but I wanted to be different. One day, I went to the library and came across a novel called Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. I don’t know if anybody reading this right now is familiar with the book, but it had an interesting cover. I borrowed it just because of that. I can’t really remember the plot now, but all I know is I enjoyed reading it. – Oliver Emocling, associate editor

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I feel like my interest in reading started when I came across a film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. The film got me feeling so frustrated that I ended up buying the book just so I could feel closer to the character or perhaps relive the painful experience in more detail (wow! masochist pala?!). – Renz Mart Reyes, graphic designer

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye was the first book I ever purchased. Since my idol Frank Iero loved the book so much, I decided at the age of 11 that this will be my first dive into serious fiction. Catcher isn’t the first book I loved though. I honestly love Salinger’s Franny and Zooey more than Catcher’s white boy angst.

An only child will never have the full grasp of the sibling experience. So with that misfortune, I turn to fiction for guidance. – Rogin Losa, junior content creator

Some encyclopedia

This sounds pretty basic, but I was obsessed with a handy kids’ encyclopedia in second grade. I can’t remember the exact title and author of the version I had anymore, but I do remember it was a reward from my godmother when I became top student of my batch. Sure, novels are wonderful as heck, but this was the first book I carried with me in places outside home.

That encyclopedia felt like a world I can contribute to trapped in paper—in its mini slam book portion, I wrote down contacts of our utility services instead of my friends. On the solar system page, I wrote a song about the planets to memorize their order. The book also contained the complete list of countries in the world and its major details like currency and literacy rate, and at one point I remember memorizing those as well. Funny enough, since that encyclopedia was spiral-styled, I bought additional pages for it too. There, I wrote my first horror story The Walking Mannequin. This is one of the most straight-up times when reading inspired me to write. – Jelou Galang, junior content creator

Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien

I think I liked this book because I had to write a book report on it in the 4th grade, and I was pleased with myself because I understood the entire thing and some of my classmates didn’t. I specifically remember learning the phrase “lee side” from this book and feeling proud because I learned a fancy phrase. – Giselle Barrientos, junior content creator

Art by Renz Mart Reyes