Learning to Fly

I guess that exploring my present to track back some habits it's a good way to rediscover my past, so I'll start with my main hobby: reading.

I remember that even before I learned to read I was fond of listening stories. My mom and some of my uncles used to read to me in the afternoons, and some of my favorite TV shows included some form of storyteller in their format. From European animations based in Children tales and famous fables (available in Mexico through Once TV) to the WB cartoons; Rocky & Bullwinkle or The Grump; and, of course, Enrique Alonso, "Cachirulo", with his incredible live action adaptations of classic children tales.

But it was until a few years later when I learned to read and a whole new world was available to me. I cannot say what was the first thing I did read, but I know that I used to read as many comic books as I could put my hands on and a big, gargantuan magazine by the name of Globo (Globe). Globo was a squarebound tabloid sized magazine filled with stories, games and puzzles. Some of the stories featured in the magazine were condensed versions of novels. I remember Fahrenheit 451 and The Portrait of Dorian Grey as some of my first readings. I guess that's where my love for genre literature comes from. I don't know how often or for how long Globo was published, but I know that during several months, in its pages, I was introduced to the works of authors the likes of Emilio Salgari, Alexander Dumas, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, R. L. Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Isaac Asimov and H. G. Wells. And that was the beginning of all. Then came book collections featuring "juvenile" literature as well as complete novels by those and several other authors. Colibrí, a cultural magazine for kids, and Cantinflas Show, an illustrated biographical magazine featuring prominent figures from humankind History were the complement to my regular reading material. Add to that a collection of The Amazing Spiderman and another one of Classics Illustrated owned by two of my uncles and I guess I can safely assume that I was as prolific and eclectic a reader as any kid at my age could be.

A very unusual case is the one concerning Novelas Inmortales (Immortal Novels). Published weekly by Novedades Editores, NI was a pocket sized comic book, printed entirely on brown ink were classic literary works were adapted to sequential art. Cervantes, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Dumas, Bronte, Dickens, Tolstoy, Balzac, Goethe, Defoe, Carroll and many other authors were featured there week by week. I first discovered NI when we moved to my grandfather's house. I was 8. My grandpa collected it along with other titles, similar in format but not in content. I guess That was my first contact with classic non-genre literature, and that discovery opened whole new options to me.

But no matter what, I will always remember Globo as my first contact with literature and the medium that teached me that it was not necessary to leave my favorite couch to fly wherever I'd like to.