Joel’s Reading Biography – A Luxury I Nearly Could Not Afford

My life in books has been nothing short of amazing. I say this for quite the contrary; I was never an avid reader and to the surprise of everyone at the time, I could not read and write.

I fondly remember the days of my childhood growing up without a care in the world and being overly-indulged during my days in the nursery. Oh no, it was not as glamourous as one might think. Being pampered meant that I developed a penchant for getting things done my way and this was not limited to the time where I had a reading assignment (forgot the title of the book) during a mandarin class which I obviously did not want to do. But being the “hero” that I was, I had tasked my close friend Shati (he’s not Chinese) to complete my assignment. Yes this little incident might have afforded much laughter on hindsight but it nevertheless has its significance in shaping my literary life.

As with most young boys that age, parents and teachers alike attributed my “bad decisions” down to playfulness and the old adage, “boys will be boys”. This meant that alarm bells pertaining to my reading were not picked up and my apparent misbehaviours were placed down to a long lineage of “boys being boys”. Maybe it was my vocal nature that threw them off. For how could a young boy who was blessed with such “stirring” vocabulary and speech using words like, “despicable” and “incorrigible” be having troubles with the language? In my defence, I blame Daffy Duck.

Another incident of note lies at the heart of the testing system during Kindergarten where pictures and responses were aplenty. In one such example, I had written down the word “monkey” under a picture of a doll. This was once again attributed to my cheeky nature as opposed to the stark reality. I was having serious problems learning to read and write. In Primary One, my learning endeavours caught up with me when my form teacher realised that I had barely passed my English Test and enrolled me in a Learning Support Programme (LSP). It was there that the instructor (Mrs Tan Poh Choo) knew immediately that I was having difficulties with the language. I will never forget the introduction I had with her where she showed me a ladder and told me in the most nonchalant manner that I could sit here (at the bottom) and admire my friends at the top or choose to slowly but surely climb up the ladder to improve my reading. I chose the latter and never looked back.

Thus truly began my life in books as I was quickly introduced to the “Peter and Jane” series where I struggled through from books 1a till I eventually reached 12c. The process was long and arduous which required the collective patience from my loved ones and teachers alike. The accompaniments of flashcards (lovingly made by my mother) helped me to recognised words and have them reinforced by memory. Thankfully, I graduated from LSP at age 7 and found motivation in scoring well at English Tests. The secret that carried me from ages 7-16 was none other than “Archie Comics” (I kid you not). The comics, introduced to me by my brother helped me a lot in improving my English as I realised I understood the relatively more complex words and its meaning. It was a joy to read the comics and the best time would either be lying down on a bed or when using the washroom (again, I kid you not). When not indulging myself with the many volumes of “Archie Comics”, I picked up books by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Stan and Jan Berenstain and I read the first three books of the “Harry Potter” Series. I liked Enid Blyton books in particular for it took me to a different realm, a land of magic, wonder and imagination. This alternate reality (most evident in the “Faraway Tree” Series) allowed me to envision myself walking through secret gardens, trap-doors and tunnels (did I mention I like Batman?).

Other books that I read during my Primary School days included “The Bookworm Club”, “The Goosebumps” Series and interestingly enough, books on Greek Mythology. I cannot recall the titles but I am sure “Aesop Fables” was a prime feature. What I do remember is enjoying these Mythical books for they always seemed so wise and especially at the end where a moral or wise-saying is revealed. It must be mentioned though that my parents felt that books were too expensive and so I remembered how in Primary School where book fairs and book orders were a frequent thing. I would browse these books but be unable to buy them. I relied a lot on hand me downs from my brother who also received his books from others. I guess this was one reason why books were considered a luxury to me alongside my reading impediment. Thankfully, my aunt used to take me to the “Popular Bookstore” at Parkway Parade where she would buy books for her own children and offered to buy me some books as well. I recall asking her to buy the series by Richard Scarry, such titles like “Busy Town Boat Race”, “The Busy World of Richard Scarry” and “The Great Pie Robbery”. I also visited my Aunt’s place and read books from their bookshelves, books like “Dr Seuss” and “Where’s Wally”.

I am very thankful that although I was not an avid reader, growing up alongside classmates who were mostly well-to-do and who bought books constantly broaden my horizons (and reading list) due to sheer pressure and influence. I felt like I was “missing out” on a craze if I failed to join them. Thus, I may not have known the importance of reading but I did realise its powers of attraction. Interestingly, the books that my peers and I read were not the typical award winners like one would expect. There was hardly any Newbery Awards Book or any other books that received awards for that matter. Personally, I think the books I selected were based off the illustrations and the genre. For instance, the books that I liked by Roald Dahl were titles like “Revolting Rhymes”, “Dirty Beasts” and “Rhyme Stew”. I think that humour was definitely on my list of things to look out for as I grew older.

During Secondary School, my reading experience was greatly stifled due to the School’s decision to scrapped English Literature at the Upper Secondary level. I do recall reading “Red Sky in the Morning” during Lower Secondary and I think “Toto-Chan”. This was on top of “Archie Comics” which was to serve me well right through Secondary Four. I spent less time reading during this phase of my life as I had taken to CCA and watching movies instead. Reading did not seem “cool” and I dreaded being labelled “a nerd” especially since my school’s reading culture was barely negligible. I even recall my Secondary One Literature teacher having to tweak the syllabus by showing us the movie “Sleepy Hollow” in an attempt to capture our attention. It also did not help matters when the school decided to implement “silent-reading” every morning before flag-raising where we had to forcefully fill up journal entries of the book we read titled “inkspiration”. Oh the irony ... For what it’s worth, I chose a thick book titled “The Further Adventures of Batman Volume 3: Featuring Catwoman” for my reading piece.

Despite taking English Literature at the JC level, a “true love” for reading was not evident. I merely read the prescribed books by Shakespeare (Othello, King Lear) and other titles like “Silas Marner”, “She Stoops to Conquer” and “The Age of Innocence”. What limited time I had was spent on CCA (I had two), Pre-U seminar, class council, House council and being part of the Literature production of Othello. Reading was really a luxury indeed! It was not till my freshman year in the University that I saw the importance and joy of reading. I enjoyed all the English Literature classes in particular Dr Poon’s class on PostColonial Literature.

What truly sparked the importance and revival of interest in reading was my time away on Exchange in Boston. I took a “Survey of Children’s Literature” class and another class on “The Theory and Pedagogy of the Language Arts Classroom” which delved deeply into the habits of reading and how it can actually be “really fun”. Bearing in mind that both these module were meant for graduate students and teachers to be, (I think) the emphasis on getting children to read was strongly highlighted and sharing experiences of one’s own reading habits opened up my eyes to the foundation of English Literature. It also helped (a lot) that both my professors were award-winning recipients who both advocated and piloted many programmes enhancing reading literacy in the United States. Their passion and sincerity struck a deep chord in me. I read many titles of Children’s Literature alongside book titles like “To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prison” (Francis Seow), “1Q84” (Haruki Murakami), “Catch 22” (Joseph Heller), “Once Upon a Jolly Hangman” (Alan Shadrake), “The Freud Reader” (Peter Gay), “Thinking Fast and Slow” (Daniel Kahnman), “Moonwalking with Einstein” (Joshua Foer), “The Satanic Verses” (Salman Rushdie), books by Jeffery Archer, “Freakonomics” (Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner), books by Dan Brown, books by Mitch Albom, books by Terry Pratchett, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Jean-Dominique Bauby) and Victorian Literature texts (sorry I can’t really recall other books that I read). These books were on top of the prescribed texts in my English Literature classes that typically were canonical texts, from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf. Oh and yes, special mention must be made of the Singapore Literature module in NIE. I found the prescribed texts to be refreshing and not as “dense” relative to British Literature. Works by Simon Tay and Alfian Sa’at provided a sense of historic realism and present day issues. I really wonder why the importance of our local Literature was only highlighted at the University level. Growing up, my reading lens was inevitably filtered to Western writers, without even the self-realisation!

These days, I find myself drawn to “bite-sized nuggets” of information freely available on the Internet. Failing which, I pick up a copy of “8-Days” or “Men’s Health” magazines. At my best, I can be found reading the local papers (and no, not “The Straits Times”). Looking back at my life in books, I think it has been nothing short of amazing as it could so easily have gone off the deep end.