The so-called tall, dark & handsome boy
As far as I can remember, the first book that I bought was “Oh Bother, Someone is Jelaous”. No, it’s not a love story, actually it’s a children’s book featuring Winnie the Pooh and his (he’s not a girl) friends. The book was only 20 pages or so: I think the story can fit in a couple yellow papers (back and forth) and the rest were colored drawings.
The next book I bought (again, as far as I can remember) was the Lion King. The book was also thin and if you’ll scan it, you will see that there are lots of illustrations compared to the text which can fit in half a dozen of yellow paper (back and forth).
But as I grew older the books that I read have only limited illustrations some don’t have illustration even just a doodle.
I can still remember some of my classmates half a decade ago asking me if I can stick to reading “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” because it has only one illustration for every chapter. I told them that I can! On the other hand, they said to me that it’s very impossible for them to read such book with only a few numbers of illustrations.
During my childhood days, I thought I will never read a book that has no illustrations. Apparently, I was wrong. A book does not need illustrations to be a bestselling book. It’s all in the contents and gist of the book. Just like in a blog site, it’s not really necessary to have a fancy layout; it’s the thought that counts. Most of you already know about this: I don’t read useless blogs (most blogs written in Tagalog are like this) even though their layouts make me go “wow”.
Okay, back to my point… I don’t know if you’ll agree with me but I think illustrations are another kind of spoilers. I know, they’ll useless and you’ll not get too much information from them unless you read the book. They only give you some ideas what is going to happen. I don’t know if this one is only true for me: they also somehow affect your imagination: Let’s pretend that you’re reading a book called “The Tall, Dark and Handsome Boy” (okay, you’ll never see a book bearing this title because I’m the one who thought of it. If it happened that you searched amazon or somewhere or you know that there’s indeed a book with the same title, please notify me so I can change it) and it has no illustrations in it (or the illustrations are not that good), is it not wonderful to imagine how that tall, dark and handsome boy looks like? But if it has good illustrations in it, you might be imagining that tall, dark and handsome boy with the face and body of that boy in the illustration.
Watching the movie first before reading the book is the same with the situation above. I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the big screens first before reading the book so I thought the movie was really great. But after reading the book, I was somehow dissatisfied; there were some spectacular scenes and characters that did not make it to the movie.
Books indeed bring us to a new world, to the world of imagination where things can only exist in our ingenious minds. Sometimes I get shocked because the characters that reside in my brain were almost the same with the actors that portray them in the movies. Isn’t that cool?
I just forgot to tell that I’m the so-called tall, dark and handsome boy. Lol. Joke. On the other hand, I wish I have a book that bears my name after the copyright symbol but not with the same title that I used as an example in this entry.
May 30, 2006 @ 1:17 am
tama some sites either has pretty layouts but boring contents or vice versa. parang beauty or brains lang yan. anyways i cant remember the first book i bought using my own money. neither the first book i’ve read. mahina talaga memory ko.
onga illustrations on books really help us alot para maimagine ng tama yung mismong dinedescribe ng author.
May 30, 2006 @ 1:27 am
Ang unang libro( na binili sakin)…ung parang may nagsasalitang “turn the page”ahihhi….tpos ung first book na binili ko wid my own money is Harry potter book 4! eheheh…ung first three hiram lang….ehehhe…
etong blog mo ang example ng magandang content at magandang layout! wahihi
May 30, 2006 @ 3:20 pm
I use to think that way about books too. Why bother reading it if it doesn’t even have any pictures? Hehe but I grew out of it very early actually like when I was in the second grade I was more interested in chapter books. Some blogs just have song lyrics or in friendster the post is only like ‘how do you work this thing?’
May 30, 2006 @ 3:26 pm
hello there louie! it’s been a while since i last visited your site.. and i miss reading your entries… eh… hhmm… well, for me, i like books with less illustrations or no illustrations at all, since i always like to imagine what i’m reading. i don’t know why, but i really hate BIG illustrations with colors on it…. it makes me wanna throw it. hihi.. imma bad bookreader. *grin* oh well, yea, i do agree with what you’ve said that the thoughts are the important part of a blog, but then, i like well-groomed , organized blogs. ^__^
May 30, 2006 @ 8:07 pm
yeah, illustrations help but they aren’t really important..
haha.. natatawa ako sa sabi mo that you don’t read useless blogs. naisip ko, “ahh.. he would never read mine.” haha.
so yeah, ikaw pala yung tall dark and handsome guy. haha. well, i need an illustration. hehehe. kiddin
May 30, 2006 @ 9:17 pm
Form versus content ha. Ang daming blogs ngayon, mukhang layout. Shit. Tas pag binasa mo, OMG. Hahaha.
There’s something in visuals that makes it interesting. Illustrations are more appealing than words.
May 31, 2006 @ 5:04 am
*cough* Madalas nga updated kamo, pero paulit-ulit ang pinagsasabi nila. I have nothing against regularly updated blogs pero lagyan naman nila ng “kulay” ang content nila, hindi lang yung layout. Hehehe
Tama si M2, there’s something appealing in illustrations; pero walang tatalo sa imagination ng tao. Yung Alice in wonderland ko, may mangilan-ngilan na ilyustrations
June 1, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
I remember my first book… it wasn’t actually a book though. It was the National Geographic Magazine for Kids… my school library has a subscription for it, and I read it everyday there eversince I got into my school when I was in 1st grade.
But I guess most of my first real books never really had pictures… because when I started reading, it was when I got into those mags… ^_^” My favorite book though is Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass… I’ve read them both for more than 7 times now eversince.. and I don’t think the illustrations are spoilers but kind of makes the story much more interesting for me.
June 2, 2006 @ 1:01 am
ako naman, nabasa ko na yung three books nang mabalitaan kong may movie na siya at super excited pa ako nun at patay na patay sa batang si Danielle Radcliff. wahaha. tapos nung napanuod ko ung movie, asar na asar ako kasi hindi kumpleto at ang daming na-edit, same as the succeeding movies, pero na realize ko na okay lang kasi kung isasalaysay nila ung buong book sa movie, sana ginawa na lang nila na tele-serye yung HP. hehehe. wala lang. ako naman binabasa ko ngayon ung LITTLE PRINCE.. actually third time ko na basahin. wala lang ako madampot na libro sa bahay. wehehehehe. tc!!!
June 3, 2006 @ 12:42 pm
i’ve never imagined myself reading \/having a book that is purely texts…i’ve been so used in reading komiks…but then, I realized that reading a nonillustrationed book is much more challenging and u have the freedom to create the look of the characters you’re reading.
Tall=Me
Dark= Me
Handsome= Ooops!
hahaha.
June 3, 2006 @ 7:15 pm
try. 2.0.3 ie. not logged. don’t forget me.
June 3, 2006 @ 7:17 pm
try. 2.0.3 ie. not logged. forget me.
if you encountered some problems with this commenting system, please contact me. thanks!
June 4, 2006 @ 11:55 am
gusto ko may illustrations kung pang-bata yung book (which is usually the case), kahit sa cover lang, ang cute kasi.
pero kung mga novels, yung tipong seryoso at malalim ang kwento, mas gusto ko wala. sometimes i can have a wild imagination, gusto ko ako gagawa nun.
June 4, 2006 @ 12:42 pm
hehe. im such a bookworm, even as a kid. i had millions of books, i can’t even remember the first book i owned! haha. if you see my room, it looks like a library. seriously! i kept all my books. i never threw them away. haha. im such a dork. lol. as for illustrations, i’ve always loved them when i was a kid but it totally ruined my imagination. i just realized that now because i like to think of the stories that i read IN MY MIND, and not seeing pictures in the book im reading because it already suggests what im supposed to think. i like to make up my own. it widens my imagination. lol.
June 5, 2006 @ 2:15 pm
I don’t know, I’ve never had any issues with illustrated books, mainly because I’m not really an illustrated books reader. I don’t consider illustrations as helpful, but I don’t consider them as spoilers either. Hey, I’ve never thought about that! :p
I’ve never made anybody go “Wow” with my layouts, but I’m thankful that you still read my blog entires, though I honestly think that they are useless and just full of blahs..Compliment sa akin eto. Touched ako. Ahahaha! Thanks, Louie! :p
June 5, 2006 @ 3:15 pm
I really don’t choose the book I read whether it has illustration or not. But a bit of a nice illustrated cover could draw my attention on it.
Yeah, watching the movie first and then reading the book would always dissatisfy you. Happens to me most of the time.
Hehehe hell yeah, some Tagalog blogs are useless piece of crap, full of shitty updates of their own lives that no one really cared to know about. Whops. Mean Hazel
But thanks, as Shari has said, it’s a compliment that you still visit our blogs often. 
P.S. I’m sure that someday you’ll be a well-known author. Trust me, you have potentials of being one.
June 6, 2006 @ 5:49 pm
the first books i had were fairy tales, little mermaid for example. i was never interested in books. as in, never. actually, my mom bought me my first harry potter book just after the movie was release. but did i read it? no. haha. just after the third movie was i interested in reading the book. i got hooked and bought the next four. and then, i tried venturing in different books and i like it. yeah, books brings us to a completely different world. that’s why i love it so much. hehe.
oh, thank yuo for still visiting and reading useless post like mine. haha.
take care mr. tall, dark and handsome. :lolz: peace!
June 9, 2006 @ 12:43 am
I thought books without illustrations were a drag. But I was wrong (of course). The first book I’ve read, w/o any illustrations except for the front cover, was Tom Swift. My love for reading sci-fi/fiction jumpstarted there. Books without illustrations are fun, as long as the author can depict and illustrate the scenes vividly using words. The best thing about this is that the images that appears in your mind are not static. They could move.
(The first book I’ve read was a science book for children… the main reason why I have a penchant for science.)