The Magic of Books

Who The Heavens Is She?

Hello again, buddies!

Okay, some of you might already know me.
My faithful fan-mily, I give you a huge shout-out!
What would I ever do without you guys?

But, let me safely assume that most of you might not.

Just to clear the air—and in case you're too engrossed to hop over to my profile to at least have a glimpse into my life—and avoid any unnecessary controversy, I'll be breaking down the basic life values I possess and the qualities that make me who I am.

This is so you can determine if my advice is worth listening to or not.  

So, back to the question—Who the heavens is she?

NUMBER ONE

I'm PeculiarPraise. A young lady on a pilgrimage through planet earth.

I'm a lover of God.
I'm not ashamed to say this.

In case my profile doesn't spell it well enough, or you just stumbled upon this book by accident, let me clearly state it.
I am a Christian.
I believe in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

This is the very reason I fell in love with reading in the first place.

Before you stone/maul me, might I just say that I'm not trying to preach to anyone.
I'm just laying down who I am.

If you're not a Christian, I don't want this to put you off.
I respect diversity of beliefs. I know there is a variety of values—everyone won't believe the same thing—and seriously that's what makes the world an 'interesting' place.

This book should be is open to everyone who loves or wants to love reading.

But remember that the purpose of this part is to explain who I am so that you will understand why I will write some things the unique way I do.

Also, that means I won't use foul language, and I don't expect anyone to do that in the comments. Please, I believe you're all level-headed people and you can express your opinions nicely. Thank you.

NUMBER TWO

I'm an avid reader.
That explains why I'm sharing my thoughts and experiences with this book in the first place.

Ask my family. Every night, they'll be together in the living room squealing and laughing as they watch a movie, while I will be in my room alone, staring at my laptop or phone, reading a book.

Ask my friends. They can almost always predict that I'm reading something if I'm not online or talking to them.

However, I am a very picky and selective person, especially with what I read (Because the magical powers of books can be both good and bad. I choose the good. More on that later).
Don't be disappointed when I don't refer to some 'popular' books or genres you might have read. 

I'm not making claims to have read all the books in the world. I'd like to meet the person who has read all the books in the world. All I'll ask is, "Are you sure you're still alive?"

NUMBER THREE

I formerly used to think I'm an introvert.
But then, social media came into my life and Bam! I realized that I'm nowhere near that.

Let's just say I'm somewhere in between... What's that called? Ambivalence? Yeah, I guess you can call me an ambivalent species.

It means, that while you won't see me at parties being loud and social, I do love to make quality relationships.

I've been at home for close to four months due to a national academic strike but I haven't gone out of my itinerary square of home, business, church and the online world. Pathetic, right?

That's why books are my way of exploring the world I don't have the boldness to confront head-on.

NUMBER FOUR

I'm an architecture student.
To tell you how I came about that choice will be yet another long story, but I'll save it for a later book.

I'm all for detailed design. I love that sense of being able to create something new as a solution to a problem and at the same time giving humans aesthetic pleasure as they live and work in a space that makes them function maximally.

NUMBER FIVE

I'm a blogger, a freelance content writer, and an author.

Yeah, writing, as you should have already guessed, is my second best thing to do after reading. It's one of my biggest passions, and, I believe, my purpose or calling.

I started my journey into writing in late 2020, during the lockdown when I began my debut novel, A Pastor's Daughter's Diary, here on Wattpad.

I also have a blog where I write my random musings majorly revolving around my view of life through God's eyes.

Writing is my way of release. Of giving back what I have received through reading.
It's not been easy or smooth, and I'm still learning. But, I must say that it's been worth every sweat and tear and sleepless night. 

So, why should you listen to whatever I have to say?

Well, I'll let you be the judge of that.
But let me briefly gist you of my reading journey so far.

PECULIARPRAISE'S READING CURRICULUM VITAE

• I fell in love with reading from a very young age.
I'd always go to my Dad's library and just stare at books too big for my brain to comprehendd. You could say that my love for reading was genetically transmitted.
With time, I found that reading was my drug.

• During the COVID lockdown period, the number of completed books I read on Wattpad alone was over sixty. I kid you not because I actually listed them all out and counted.

I was bored out of my skin. Since my phone had a fault, I turned to surfing the internet on my mom's formerly abandoned blackberry phone, searching for keywords like Christian fiction, Christian Romance stories, Stories about angels, blah, blah, blah.

Then, I discovered this platform called wattpad. I was captured, hooked, and hypnotized.
What made it cooler was the interactive, fun aspect that wasn't there while I read PDF books. Those features like voting, commenting and getting to know who the author behind the amazing books are. 

Opera Mini was nice to always give me a free 50MB per day, which I made sure to finish every time, reading Wattpad stories.

But before I officially signed up, I was a silent observer, trying to sieve out the good from the junk.

• I take books everywhere.
I don't just feel comfortable going without my book accessories.

I read while I eat. I read while in the toilet.
If it's possible to read while I am asleep I'll do it (And yeah, I've had many times of reading in my dreams, so I guess I occasionally do that too)

PS: Don't try this at home.

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I guess I have run out of things to say for now. If I remember anything later that I have left out, I will add it.

But in the meantime, if you have a question about me, that relates to reading, of course, drop them in the comments. I'll be glad to answer them.

Thanks for reading.
You're amazing.

In the next update, we'll look into the different types of readers there are, one after the other.

Buckle your belts and get ready for the ride.

Have a great day. And don't forget to vote.