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By Valerie Tort

When looking for a perfect advocate, the National Book Development Board stumbled upon GMA Unang Hirit TV host and mother Lyn Ching-Pascual’s extensive collection of paperbacks and hard-bounds. There and then, their search was officially over.

Lyn Ching is an advocate of book reading especially for children since it is their foundation years. “When you read, you exercise and stretch your imagination, you learn something new. With reading, you are feeding the minds of the people,” the TV host said.

The National Book Development Board’s Bookwatch, a quarterly publication, promoted a campaign for Filipino book lovers and enthusiasts. Lyn Ching-Pascual is part of their campaign titled Get Caught Reading Campaign. She became an image model for the youth and helped the Board to spread the word.

Her passion with books, since her adolescent years, extended to the point where she dreamed of building her own library at the comfort of their home. She became acquainted with novels when she was 12 years old. Her book of choice was Sweet Valley High, jus like other teenagers who fell in love with romantic narratives.

She maintained her passion until she started borrowing books to satisfy her desire to learn. “I continued borrowing and reading those books while my friends who influenced me to read stopped doing so,” Lyn Ching-Pascual said.

“When I go to a bookstore, I go straight to the biographies and bestsellers. I love reading nonfiction books,” she added. From reading novels of Danielle Steel and Stephen King, Lyn Ching-Pascual’s inclination for nonfiction books and other light reading materials developed. She tried to read as many books as possible in a goal to become a broad reader. “I try to be a broad reader as possible. When you know you’re smart, you feel good about yourself,” she explained.

Reading makes her an effective TV host since a host needs to know a lot of information to keep the talk alive and continuous on cam. The small pieces of information will bring interest to the viewers and also educate them especially when trivia questions sprung up. The bits and pieces of information are very useful when impromptu discussions just appeared like a mushroom.

Lyn Ching-Pascual’s world evolved in reading and taking care of the books she had. “”You start with picking the most perfect book in the bookstore. I’m very strict when buying books. The spine and the corners must have no creases. I also have rolls of plastic covers stored away just for that purpose (which is to protect the books from further damage and stress out of its usage),” the TV host said.

As an advocate for book reading, she also involved her three-year old daughter Gaby. She wanted to share the gift of learning and books became a vehicle for education. “It is something that I wanted to share with everybody,” Lyn said. “I figured if she sees me taking so much care for books, then she would also give importance to them as well,” the GMA TV host added.

She witnessed how the youth neglected the importance of books nowadays. She saw how people valued other unimportant things like toys instead of reading. She observed that people tend to neglect reading since they did not see the larger picture of life and their future. “I think every parent wants their children to be somebody someday. You can ensure their future through reading,” she said.

To help other children who have passion to reading but lack the financial aid to support their desires for education, Lyn Ching-Pascual thought of an idea that can be helpful and increase Filipino book lovers. “We need free libraries for children, libraries which are really conducive to learning,” she said.

Thus, she used her good image as a media personality to bring back the good influence that the youth need in terms of readership and book importance.

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