Jeannette's Reading Biography

I have always love books, especially new ones! I love the smell of it, the straight unbent corners, and sometimes, because it has a very pretty cover.

In my younger (Primary School) days, I remember reading lots of Enid Blyton short stories like “The Pig with Green Spots” and always pleading with my mum to buy me more of her books. Then I discovered a place called the library in Primary 1, and my mum would bring me there once a week. I would hunt for more Enid Blyton, and some other beautifully illustrated books so I could admire the pictures. Then I was introduced to “The Bookworm Club” when they came to my school to give a story telling session and I started reading those and Enid Blyton took a back seat, but not for long. “Famous Five” was so popular when I was about Primary 4 and I decided to give a try and that got hooked; together with “Sweet Valley High”, “Goosebumps” and “Harry Potter”. Of course, there was the occasional Chinese book that we had to read during silent reading programme in school.

Secondary school was where I was exposed to most books because my school had a reading programme where there was a list of English books that each class had to buy and circulate around. Each student got to keep a book at the end of the year so that she can add it to her collection and lend it to her friends. This really put me in the habit of reading and some of the books we had included titles such as “The Joy Luck Club”, “The Pianist”, “The Alchemist”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Anne of Green Gables”, etc. Some books, like “The Alchemist” were amazing, but when I read “The Green Gatsby” then, it really did put me to sleep because I had no idea what the message was behind the book. Comic books were also very popular amongst my classmates and I tried to read a book or two, only to give up because they were always in Chinese and I could never understand enough to keep my interest going.

The introduction of Literature also gave me a chance to read books that I would not pick up on my own. I particularly enjoyed “Red Sky in the Morning”, “The Clay Marble” and “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry”. I didn’t do Shakespeare in lower secondary, and only did “Twelfth Night” when I was in Secondary 3. I enjoyed it despite being unable to understand most of it until my teacher explained it to us. My teacher helped us to see the wit behind his lines and to appreciate Shakespeare more than I would if I read him on my own.

Then came Junior College and I was determined to take Literature as a subject because I liked it so much, until I found out we were doing “The Great Gatsby”. I was disappointed, since I had an encounter with it in Secondary School but it turned out to be my favourite book out of all that we were doing. I didn’t read much since there was so much notes from all subjects but there was a book reading club that my Literature teacher set up when I was in J2, and that where I got to know Neil Gaiman. The first ever short story I read was “Other People” from his book “Fragile Things”, and I fell in love with it. I also read “Tuesdays with Morrie”, and “One Day” both by Mitch Albom, and I think that was pretty much it.

University left me with time to only read all the course books and I haven’t read anything else other than “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman, some Sophie Kinsella and recipe books. I also started on Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs but it’s on hold now. I guess this pretty much sums up my reading biography. I am hoping to have more time to read when I start work, but I wonder if that will happen? Nonetheless, I must say I do enjoy reading because it provides an escape from reality and sometimes, I carry a sense of hope that something similar that happens in the story would happen to me too, and that keeps me happy; even if only for awhile.