Nerine's Reading Biography: "Read at whim! Read at whim!"

I have always had a certain fascination with words. Naturally, when my mom placed a book in my hand for the first time, I was immediately drawn to reading. The earliest memory of my reading journey is probably my young younger self holding a Ladybird Books’ fairytale. It was also this period that I started reading the Peter and Jane Series as well as Mr Men and Little Miss Series. These books formed the foundation of my grammar and vocabulary during the early stages of my life.

I have always been interested in adventure and I suppose at the age of 10, the most adventure one could get is through a storybook. I read The Famous Five Series, The Secret Seven Series and The Adventure Series. I didn’t put much thought into this back then but now I think what I liked most about these books was the absence of adult protagonists. Kids are just way cooler. They took charge of their own adventures and settled all the problems on their own. When I was reading these stories, I felt like I wanted to join them on their explorations in solving mysteries. I remember myself playing pretend either alone or with my brother to a story I had just read from these books. Power Rangers definitely helped to add to my imagination as well. I also completed The Naughtiest Girl Series and a lot of books from The Popular Rewards Series and Goosebumps Series, as well as Bible stories for children. I particularly enjoyed placing myself in the imaginary world of some characters in the books I read. This really took me away from the real world and I found myself sitting by my own reading most of the time.

The very first magazine I got hold on was Smash Hits around primary 4 or 5. I was immediately drawn to pop culture after I was done with that magazine. I then started getting my mom to buy me other magazines relating to 90’s pop culture such as Top Of The Pops and Lime. Along with MTV, these magazines made me immerse myself into music and pop artists. On hindsight, I’m really glad I was introduced to music so early because it definitely contributed to my reading, writing and speech. For instance, I realised that I use a lot of American and sometimes, a bit of Brit lingo in my speech and texts. I also try to pay close attention to song lyrics as there are many songs which have meaningful and interesting lyrics. This definitely helps me as a Lit student when I analyse poetry especially, as many songs can be read as poems. Being interested in music and the media also helps me as a teacher because it helps me relate to my students better by keeping in sync with them. In secondary school, because it was considered the trend, I read Teenage, Teens, 8days and Readers’ Digest magazines. In JC, I subscribed to Time and Newsweek magazines. At that time, I found these magazines really boring and only read articles dealing with topics I was interested in. After A Levels, I worked in EmitAsia for about three months selling magazines. There, I got exposed to more magazines and started reading Nat Geo, Asian Geo, Discovery Channel and Cosmopolitan magazines. I am going to subscribe to Time and Nat Geo again because I am more interested in current affairs now. I feel these magazines would also improve my general knowledge and awareness of the world.

All through primary and secondary school, I was quite hooked to Archie Comics that I bought every new issue. My obsession became too crazy so I started renting them from a bookshop in Holland Village. I remember that on some Saturdays, I would try to find any Archie Comic I have yet to read and rent it. I remember myself reading quite a bit of other comics like Richie Rich, The Adventures of Tintin and Baby Blues.

In JC, I studied Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Shakespeare’s Othello. P&P definitely got my attention because not only is Austen full of humour and wit, she also deals with themes of courtship and marriage. I became so obsessed with the book that I started quoting everything Austen mentioned and would also watch the BBC version. (Yes, a few friends might have walked the plank on me.) It was also in JC that I became exposed briefly to poets like Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Barrett Browning etc, and poems dealing with more serious subject matters like death, murder, depression etc. After A Levels, I started reading poetry on my own by borrowing poetry books from libraries and hanging out in Kino’s poetry section. I expanded my poetry reading scope to include Carol Ann Duffy (my favourite poet), Pablo Neruda (best love poet, in my opinion) and E. E. Cummings (ignited in me a fascination for typography). It was also this period that I was introduced to Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde and Sarah Kane. I started reading short stories by Catherine Lim and Roald Dahl. I like reading poetry and short stories because perhaps I don’t have as much patience to sit through a long novel or series like the Harry Potter series or Lord of The Rings Trilogy but these are still in my reading list and I hope to complete them one day, someday.

In uni, I was introduced to even more writers. I find it interesting that before uni, the only local writers I read were Catherine Lim and Alfian Sa’at because we were seldom exposed to local writers in seconadry school and JC. However, on my practicum, I observed that secondary schools are making an effort to allow their students be read local literature. I think this is important because Literature then becomes more relatable to students. Uni allowed me to meet Kuo Pao Kun, Edwin Thumboo and Boey Kim Cheng etc. I must say I particularly enjoyed reading postcolonial literature because it puts things into perspective for me when I travel to countries in Asia like India and SEA. I feel it helps me to better understand the human condition and appreciate diversity more. I would say the three favourite books I studied in uni are Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Wilde’s Dorian Gray. The protagonists are very strong characters who tug on a certain kind of loneliness that I find extremely beautiful to read about. I realised that I enjoy reading books which contain either characters with very strong personalities or subject matters which are usually a little sad/ shocking. Once in a while, I still like to pick up a 'children's book' that I didn't read growing up. But I suppose I have mature quite a bit as a reader because I now not only read for the plot and characters, I tend to think about the themes, writers’ intention as well as decide for myself if it is a good book based on various criteria set both by society and myself. These days, I spend a lot of time reading travel articles. I am trying to read more books but films seem to be taking precedence. Nevertheless, I am hoping to strike off more books from my reading list this year!

Also, there is this event “Books & Beer”. I attended the very first one and was hooked. Y’all should consider checking it out!
“The rules of the book swap are simple. Participants are only allowed to bring up to 10 pre-loved books, and ideally bring home the same number of books they came with. If participants leave books behind, the organizers reserve the rights to feature them at the following event, or donate to charity.”

http://booksandbeersingapore.tumblr.com