By Jahzeel Dionne V. Ybasco

I have always wanted a library. I remember dreaming of my own libraries when I was a kid. That is right. Libraries. I wanted to have a private one—a place where I could always get lost in to read, to think, and to write—and a public one where I could invite people to come in, donate a couple of coins for the maintenance of the place, and read to their hearts’ content. Somehow, I thought what a wonderful place this world could be if more people read books.

Given my major, I was able to accumulate a humble number of books in a span of four years to my father’s amusement. Since our shelf space was limited back then, I had to put the books anywhere they could fit. My father tolerated the books in the beginning but when I got a job and could buy books faster than I could read them, he put his foot down and eventually stored them in boxes. He then stacked the boxes on top of each other—they were literally and literarily buried.

For some years now, I heavily depended on eBooks and I even thanked Samsung for the Note series, and Steve Jobs for the iPad. At least, I could still keep up with my reading without making my father angry. I often thought twice in buying books, usually considering whether they were worthy to be bought or only to be downloaded. Alas, I thought my dream of putting up my own libraries was far from happening.

A miracle happened after several years of waiting. I got home from a long vacation this weekend and found a huge bookshelf greeting me with its empty shelves waiting to be filled. My parents finally bought me a new bookshelf and how beautiful it is! It was a great feeling unboxing my “hidden treasure” and having my family help me clean the books and arrange them. About five boxes of hardbound and softbound goodies were sorted, my family and I were surprised about how many I got. My brother was annoyed at first because he was the one who brought the boxes downstairs but as my mother and I wiped the books, I could feel his growing admiration and my parents’ pride. I have a huge collection, the books almost filled the shelves and I still have a number of books in the office. For the meantime, my books are arranged according to classics and contemporary but I am still thinking of how to organize them better. That can wait though.

I still have a long way to go before I can have a public library however I am building my private one slowly but surely. Thank God for my mom who taught me how to read and for my family for making one of my dreams happen.