Zarifah's Reading Biography

I cannot remember the exact date or moment my relationship with reading began. I can’t even recall if my first book was an English or Mandarin book. All I remember was going to the old national library with my mother and older sister every weekend. Walking towards the building with red bricks and red steps. I remember running up those red steps, racing with my sister to the children’s section. I remember pulling out books from the shelf and standing in queue waiting patiently to get my book stamped. Unfortunately, I simply cannot recall the title of any of the books.

In upper primary, I read books by Enid Blyton and the children encyclopedia, mainly the history section. In fact, if I recall correctly, I only read the history section of the children encyclopedia because I found it extremely interesting. With the help of the illustrations, it was like looking and reading about a whole new world and that fascinated me greatly. Not surprisingly, when I entered Secondary School, I began developing an interest in fantasy and historical fiction. I was absolutely in love with the Arthurian legends and novels about King Henry VIII’s wives. In upper secondary, while still interested in the Fantasy genre, but less so with the Arthurian legends, I begun reading stories about Vampires. Namely, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire , Queen of the Damned, The Vampire Arman, The Vampire Lestat and a few others. Before reading the Vampire series, I had always thought being immortal was “pretty cool” because you would be able to live forever and see the world change, a living breathing eyewitness to history. However, Ann Rice’s book opened my eyes and showed me the true curse of immortality.

I almost stop reading for entertainment and pleasure in JC. The only books I read outside of my prescribe texts were Dan Brown's books.It was also in JC that I was first introduced to Shakespeare, Othello and King Lear. Simply put, I did not enjoy Shakespeare text at all. The language was new to me, and half the time I did not know what was going on. I really struggle with the Shakespeare text then. While I appreciate the depth of Shakespeare’s plays, I still dread reading Shakespeare and even worse teaching it.

As I entered University, I began reading more and beyond what I would normally read. The prescribe texts opened my eyes to different styles of writing. In the past, I would read books to escape into another world; they were my form of escapism. Now, I would read for more than simply escaping. As my reading skills improve, I would read to widen my knowledge, to question my assumptions, to question the status quo. Often, my friends in NIE would recommend books that they found interesting and I would give it a chance. Books recommended by my NIE friends, includes, Brave New World, The Book Thief, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and a few others. Discussing and recommending books among friends, was something that I only experience when I entered University.

Books were not my only medium for reading. Since eleven, I have been reading Manga as well. Manga is a Japanese style comic. I found Manga entertaining and was probably the reason that kept my Mandarin at a passing grade up till the A’levels. It was the only reading I did for Mandarin.

With the advance in technology and increased importance of social media, picking up a book and quietly reading it as a hobby is something I find slowly disappearing. With entertainment such as video games and television, reading a book is often pushed aside in favour of the previous two. I find myself guilty of that as well, especially now when gaming technology has really taken off and the complexity of games continue to deepen. Gaming allows gamers to gain an immediate sense of entertainment and escapism, ‘pulling’ them into their world faster than a book is able to.  In the 21^st century where people have increasingly short attention span, the speed in which you can catch someone’s attention becomes very crucial. In the past I would at least read about half a book before deciding if it worthwhile continuing, now I would read about ten pages to decide if it is worthwhile continuing. I find this occurrence to be a sad phenomenon as the world within a book is still much more complex and deep. I often wonder as I am nearing graduation, how I would get my students interested in reading especially when they are surrounded by so many different form of entertainment.