Shih Wen's Reading Biography

Reading was never my forte. But what kind of skills do you need in reading, and does it even matter if you are good at it, or not? I guess it matters, because I was not born with the flair in language. In fact, I always thought I have some reading disabilities because I take so much more time to read a text than my peers do. I used to not be able to complete all my exam papers because I had to spend half my time understanding the texts. In other words, reading to me has always been some sort of a battle - the battle to just sit and complete a book, to read it once and get it right, to fully grasp the intention and meaning of the text after reading it several times. Yes, I was a slow reader and I still am. I like to make sure I understood every sentence before proceeding to the next and never missing out on the smallest detail (which I always suspect will come in very important later in the story).



As far as I can remember, my very first book which I read independently was the phonics book by Ladybird. Yes, the one with Peter, Jane and their Golden Retriever which I remember goes “This is Peter. This is Jane. This is their dog.” My mom had foresight and sent me to phonics class, a privilege (I think) then that not every student enjoy when they were 4 years old. I progressed from book 1a to 12c before I started reading my brother’s series of Book Worms which I very much enjoyed but can remember little of. Most of the reading materials I got when I was younger were passed down from my brother who is 5 years my senior.

   


Going on to primary school, I picked up the Sweet Valley series because that was what all the other girls (and some boys) were reading at that point of time. I used to borrow from my friends or from the library but never had the urge to own one myself. So there were Sweet Valley Kids, Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High. Sweet Valley University was off limits due to its high ‘sexual content’.  While I might frown upon them now, the Sweet Valley series were a great joy to read at our age. Other than that, there was also the Baby Sitters’ Club which brings back nostalgic memories as I am typing this now. Other books I can remember reading were those from Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine which I stole from my brother’s collection (I love horror) but I guess SV still fills the bulk of my reading list. Hence, I guess many would agree I grew up reading a lot of trash. Reading was just for pleasure anyway!

  

The memory of books read in my secondary school days is rather hazy in my mind now, perhaps because there wasn’t any specific genre or series of books which I stick to in my 4 years. Also it seems so long ago. I remember only reading books which were recommended by my English teachers. The only book I remembered reading was Animal Farm as it was one of set text for Literature and I thought it was very interesting when historical context was brought into the story. It was also the first time I was introduced to Shakespeare. Good thing was that somehow I was not put off by the language as somehow I was able to “decode” them better than my friends did and that gave me a lot of confidence as a reader.

  

In my JC days, more “intellectual” books were introduced to my list. Mitch Albom’s inspirational short reads such as Five People You Meet In Heaven and For One More Day were some of the best which left deep impressions. This was also the time when I was drawn to Literature as a subject, and I believe my Literature set texts played an important part in kindling the flame (albeit at such a late stage in my life) for reading. My school had only 2 literature classes (out of the 25 or so classes we had for our cohort) and we felt more elitist then marginalized (haha). We read books on Utopia, such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Brave New World. I loved how these utopian writings present to us a world that is so strange yet so familiar. It made me more aware of the injustices in society, opened my blinded eyes to new perspectives in life. Sounds like a inspiring epiphany? It was more like a late one. Turned out I had C for my Literature for ‘A’ levels.

There was a two year vacuum in my reading biography from after ‘A’s till before I entered NIE. That was because I was working and cannot remember reading anything except for the daily newspapers.

NIE was the place where I really learn as a reader. Having been “out there” for two years and back in a learning institute, I believe I have learnt more in my 4 years at NIE than any of the other stages in my life. NIE is where I really changed as a reader, perhaps because I am more intrinsically motivated to read. Reading is no longer just about passing exams and writing essays. Reading now is about paving my way as a Literature teacher in future. Learning to read and to read critically—that is more important than being a fast reader who reads passively. I learnt that it is not about quantity of your reading, but about the quality of your read. Here in NIE, I was also exposed to good books out of the canon, such as Waiting for the Babarians and books and plays by local writers. Reading is also not restricted to book per se. There were journals and articles related to the books that we have read to give a wider perspective of the issues in question. I have also recently subscribed to the Newsweek to keep myself up-to-date with news and happenings out of Singapore. They have news and articles which were never reported in local papers!

Today, I enjoy reading more than ever. I have learnt to be more discerning with my choice of books and also read for more reasons, and that, in itself, gives me more reason to read. Now, I prefer collecting all the books that I read as a form of satisfaction and also for the sense of ownership.

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.  

Sarah's Reading Biography

After reading my colleagues’ reading biographies, I realised that I am not really an avid reader as compared to the others. I believe it is because I am more fixated to graphics, and I get attracted to pictures and colours more than anything else especially when I was younger. I have a sister who is a year older than me and she enjoys reading. My parents took this opportunity to get me interested in reading. It works as I was introduced to a variety of books and authors which includes books and stories by Enid Blyton, Aesop’s Fables and Mr Men and Little Miss. I enjoyed reading Enid Blyton’s The Naughtiest Girl Series the most, but I have to admit that I am attracted to these books because they have drawings in it. What kept me from reading the books was my love for colouring, so my mum used the extrinsic motivation to encourage to me to read more: I can only colour the pages at the back if I finish reading the books. I also read The Bookworm Series, which again I was mostly attracted by the graphics.

When I was in upper primary, I was introduced to an adventure series titled The Three Investigators through a book fair in school. That was my first experience reading on my own initiative. I was fascinated by their adventures that every page kept me asking for more.  

In secondary school, I was more obsessed with art than reading. I only read my literature texts; The Bully by Yvonne Coppard as well as the abridged version of Shakespeare’s texts including Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That was when I was first introduced to Shakespeare (albeit abridged). It was definitely difficult to grasp because of the language barrier and I only came to appreciate Shakespeare during my study for A levels. We did Othello and King Lear for A levels, and honestly I had a lot of problems throughout my study of Shakespeare in English Literature. I started to become more aware of the richness of those texts when my tutor did an intensive study on them before the exams and soon I started to explore more of Shakespeare such as The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors on my leisure time.  

During my adolescent days I was also swayed into reading Harry Potter Series. My interest in Rowling’s books sparked when I watched the first movie installment. I began to immerse myself in the story of the boy wizard as I was fond of the theme on friendship and family. I was also obsessed with this series partly because of the target audience of the books, and how adolescents can easily relate to the protagonists due to their close age gap with the readers. I also began reading Dan Brown Series (and yes, I am very excited for his new book this May!) and my personal favourites are Robert Langdon’s adventures in Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol.

Somehow during my late teens I got into the Twilight Saga Series. I thought it was an entertaining read as a whole, but honestly as soon as I finished reading the last book, I felt like throwing the book out of the window. Chick flicks aside, I then tried a different genre by reading Haruki Murakami’s novels, which was in eye opener because that was my initial attempt in reading books by Asian writers apart from Singaporean writers such as books by Suchen Christine Lim and Catherine Lim. During my free time, I also read a couple of biographies such as Lee Kuan Yew’s Hard Truth as well as an interesting read of the biography of Shin Dong Hyuk from the book entitled Escape from Camp 14. I enjoyed reading the latter as it gives me an opportunity to unravel the untold and unexplored stories from North Korea, and I began to read up more on their politics as it personally aroused my interest.

Also, my love for drawings and graphics continues till now. This is through my love for reading Japanese comics (manga) and apart from the animation, I enjoy how most of these stories are plot driven and it drives fans crazy to wait for the release of new chapters every week. Every new chapter of the comic reveals or solves many different mysteries, adding to a lot of anticipation despite only lasting for only about twenty pages. It is also very interesting as to how the authors (mangakas) are able to tie loose knots from hundred over chapters ago. There are no rooms for plot holes as fans are the hardest critics that mangaka’s get. Cliffhangers at the end of each chapter are perhaps a device to keep the fans for wanting more.

Michelle's Reading Biography: Why do I (we) read?

In thinking about how to write this reading biography, I asked a few people around me why they read. One person told me that it is because he likes to be transported to another world. Another person said that he reads to find out more about the world, to learn new things. One other person replied that in fact, he only reads because he has to, for example, reading the textbook or notes given by teachers. As for me, I have always found it hard to articulate why I read because there are just too many reasons. The most basic explanation for why I read is simply because I enjoy reading. But what makes me find reading enjoyable? Through this reading biography, I would perhaps be able to reflect on why I read and the reasons I enjoy reading.

I believe that who we are, including our interests, personality, and lifestyle, influences what we read. And I also believe that what we read influences who we are and who we become. For example, when I was in lower primary, my teacher talked about this thing called deforestation. I remember feeling fascinated and sad at the same time that people could destroy large areas of forests. Like many other children, I was naturally inquisitive. Curious and wanting to find out more about deforestation, I started reading more about anything related to deforestation, from science magazines to encyclopaedia entries. What I read made an impact on me in that I started becoming more environmentally conscious, especially in the aspect of saving paper. For instance, I remember being hard on my younger brother whenever I felt he was wasting paper on ‘useless’ things.

Other than deforestation, I had various and varied interests as a primary school child at different times, ranging from inventors and scientists to the history of Egypt and China respectively. I tried reading encyclopaedia entries from the encyclopaedia set my parents had but turned to children encyclopaedias when I could not understand. I even had a notebook which I used to copy the entries into. I also found story books that were fictional but drew on real historical facts related to the topics I was interested in at the time. I found it exciting to learn new things about the things I was interested in.

Books that occupied my time when I was in Primary school also included a lot of Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes stories. I enjoyed being part of some mystery and feeling like I was on the same journey as these detectives in uncovering the truth. However, I also remember my parents discouraging me from reading the Hardy Boys. I still do not know the exact reasons but if I were to form my own theory, I think what they did was influenced by the belief that what we read as a child is part of our socialisation. I was already enough of a tomboy as a child so that was probably why they tried to stop me from reading about a bunch of boys.

Reflecting on my reading habits as a child, it has made me realise that my parents had a lot of impact on me and how I cultivated a habit of reading. They created an environment that encouraged reading. As far as I can remember, there have always been a lot of books in the house; some stored in the cupboards outside where shoes are supposed to be as there was no space in the house. The bookstore was always a stopover during shopping. They always encouraged us to buy a book and this was one of the times when the cost did not matter.

However, I started reading less during Secondary School. I became occupied with friends and CCA, watching TV dramas, and it did not seem as cool to read. What I read was probably mainly provided by the school or for English and Literature classes. Although I read less, there was a series of books which accompanied me through my adolescence, none other than the Harry Potter series. The Harry Potter books have a special place in my heart as I feel that I had grown up with them. Those were the books that I found myself sitting for hours to read them and finding it hard to put the book down, wanting to get through the book because the story was so exciting and at the same time not wanting to finish the book because that would mean the end of the story and back to anticipating the release of the next book. I found enjoyment in reading this series because I was transported to a magical world and because I could relate to the characters who were about the same age as I was.

In JC, similar to my time in Secondary school, I also mostly read only things required for the curriculum. The only difference was that I felt obliged to read the news too because of GP, which I had not really bothered to before. JC also exposed me to more types of texts as I was a H2 Literature student. I read more poems than I ever had prior to JC and it was also the first time I had to read and analyse plays.

NIE also exposed me to an even greater range of texts. I started reading academic journals. I tapped on them for research into essays for both my English and English Literature courses. I also got to read a wider range of literary texts in Literature courses. For example, texts from Chaucer’s time to contemporary literature, and also texts not in Western canon like local and Asian writers’ works. University also helped me to mature into becoming a more active reader who can read with a critical mind. I am no longer a reader who only reads passively to gain enjoyment from reading; I am also empowered to read critically, sometimes without even making a conscious effort to do so. I have come to realise that reading is important to me as it gives me different perspectives of the world, through which I reflect on my own life and values. It also in these few years that I started reading literary books and stories on my own, like 1984 by George Orwell and The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. Perhaps you could say that studying Literature over the years has cultivated in me a ‘taste’ for ‘good literature’?

Through this exercise of writing my reading biography, I can perhaps express some of the many reasons we read – the subject matter is of interest to us, to be socialised into ways of the world, to gain knowledge, to escape, to know that we are not alone in our experiences, to see the world through lenses other than our own, to reflect. The points that I have made are not new but these are the few observations that I have managed to make through looking at my reading habits. For all these reasons and more, I genuinely feel that reading has played a very big role in my life and who I am have been, and will continue to be, shaped by what I read.

Amala's Reading Biography

Childhood can never be a complete one without the famous children's writer Enid Blyton in it. Like many of us, my proper reading started with Enid Blyton's adventure series in which the characters go out to discover mysteries on their own. When I was younger, I often used to imagine that I was one of the characters invovled in any book that I read as it made me feel like I was in an imaginary world. I used to dream a lot about being a character in the book and I used to blabber on and on to my parents about the books I read. After Enid Blyton's children stories, I was addicted to Russell Lee's True Singapore Ghost Stories and I enjoyed how frightening the stories were. I was often doubtful about whether the stories were absolutely true but at the same time, I was shocked that such frightening incidents had taken place in Singapore. I used to read these ghost stories especially at night to scare myself even more and thinking about it now makes me laugh at myself for the things I used to do when I was younger. Russell Lee's series of True Singapore Ghost Stories were very addictive to me as those were the books I used to look for first when I entered any library.

When I moved on to my secondary education, I took a step back from fiction books and I dwelled more into non-fiction series of books like the Reader's Digest monthly publication. I could clearly remember that I had forced my parents to subscribe to a yearly subscription of Reader's digest and I used to carry the book wherever I go to until I finished reading it. I often looked forward to the next month's publication because of the very encouraging true stories that were published in it. Since then, I enjoyed reading the series of Reader's Digest because of the new words that I used to learn from it and I used to also enjoy the section dedicated to jokes and riddles from the book as well. I started developing the interest of reading the newspapers almost everyday too. I used to regard the habit of reading the newspapers as a chore but as I grew older, I realized the importance of knowing what is happening around me and that was only possible by reading the newspapers. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series were a huge hit among many including my classmates who used to force me into reading her books. I tried reading them but I could not connect with her stories. I enjoyed the Happry Potter movies though.

Studying Literature at Junior College meant that I had to read more fiction books for some time like Shakepeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. These books were tough for me initially especially Shakespeare's books because it took me long to understand Shakespeare's English. However, after awhile, I got the hang of it and I was very much comfortable reading Shakespeare's writing. Again, I found myself dreaming about life in the 16th century and how people even dressed in the 16th century. Only after taking up Literature in Junior College, I developed the interest in poetry such that I started reading poetry in my own time and I even started deveoped the passion in writing my own poetry as well. My love for poetry has been continuing till today such that I still do write poems during my freetime. There was a book in particular that I had read that is still in my mind today which is Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes.
I fell in love with this book to the extent that I read it all over again very recently. It is the female protagonist in the plot that I admire since then because of her courage in the story.

In the past four years or so, I have started reading slightly advanced readings that actually teach me a lot more about other authors and their objectives in writing. These readings have definitely helped me to learn more about different texts and they allow me to know how I could teach these texts to my students in future. Also, it is heart-warming that my modules at school allow me to read children's Literature all over again like fairytales and even the series of Narnia. I am more than happy to actually say that I am trying my best to balance out my readings between fiction and non-fiction. I believe that reading allows me to step out into a different word and it is truly an escape from reality for me. To me, reading is definitely 'dreaming with open eyes.'

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

Nisha’s Reading Biography - Open your hearts and feel the words

 As cliché as it sounds I truly read to learn, to understand, to grow, to discover, to imagine, to travel and to tap into the depths of my heart to feel. For these reasons I love reading. However I never understood the importance of reading as a child and thus I began my reading journey by hating to read. I was a late bloomer when it came to loving books and reading simply for the joy and pleasure of it. I have always been an audio person more then a visual person and thus music was my one and only love and everything else was secondary. Therefore I preferred listening to someone reading stories to me instead of picking a book up and reading it on my own. I found listening more enjoyable then reading because I found it amusing, fun and intriguing how each reader brings a unique voice and tone to the words and how they dramatize and express the words and emotions of the words which is what I loved most as a child. I loved watching the facial expressions and the way each word sounded when my parents or my uncle and aunt read stories to me. I hated sitting quietly in one place and staring at the words in the book by myself and reading silently. Silence was something that I did not appreciate as a child as I was a hyperactive kid and I could not sit still and do something like reading.

Thus to get me interested in reading my parents introduced me to picture books as words was something I did not fancy more than pictures as I liked to create my own words based on the pictures instead of having to read someone else’s interpretation of the pictures which most of the time did not coincide with my interpretation of the pictures. I remember crying when I thought that a tiger was a cute, friendly animal because to me the tiger in the book looked so friendly but was broken when my mum burst my bubble by saying that the tiger ate the deer. Slowly my mum introduced me to short stories and one which I loved reading was the entire collection of Mr. Men and later Little Miss children books. I remember reading the books out loud and clear with as much expressions as possible as only then I found that my time reading was worthwhile. These books taught me to understand the different personalities and emotions of people as the name of the book suggests. I also remember drawing the characters of the Mr. Men and Little Miss series out and telling the stories on my own as I loved the brightly coloured and boldly drawn pictures which never failed to make my day. I remember calling my brother, Mr. Cheerful, my dad, Mr. Busy, my mum Little Miss Neat and being called little Miss chatterbox mostly and little Miss Sunshine at times. Other books that I read during kindergarten that I remember and loved reading would be Alice in Wonderland which introduced me to the genre of fantasy, fairy tales like Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood. I loved these books as they taught me important morals and values which my mum used to emphasize as she selected books for me to read based on that. I also remember owning a pet rabbit after reading Alice and the Wonderland.

Other books that I read during my childhood, were more fantasy books such as The Brothers Grimm stories like Cinderella, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Snow White and Children’s and Household Tales. I was also unfortunately into Disney when I was young and thus I read all the princess books such as the Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty. It was only in the later years during secondary school when I learned to read in depth and not just do a surface reading that I realized how stereotypical the portrayal of the princesses were, as they were always in need of ‘saving’ which I could not stand. Other books that I read was a book that was for curious kids though I can’t remember the title. The book was in a question and answer format that answered questions such as why is the sky blue and the grass green. My dad got me this book as I kept asking a lot of questions all the time and so I read many books of that nature but I can’t remember the exact titles.  My dad also had an entire collection of the encyclopedia from A-Z which I used to read as I wanted answers to my questions which I rarely got from my parents who always directed me to books. I also read books that my friends introduced to me in primary school as they kept promoting them to me and I remember having competitions among my friends as to who can finish a book first. Some books that they introduced to me were Enid Blyton’s the Noddy books which I loved as he was kind and honest, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory which I also loved and I remember hoping for the golden ticket when I bought chocolates. Other books that I read following the trends of my friends were Sweet Valley High series and the Babysitter club. I did not fancy such teen drama but they gave me opportunities to explain why I hate these books while my friends brag about how good the books are and how they wish they were such popular girls in school.

When I entered Secondary school, I remember loving the Reader’s Digest for the stories and the new words section plus the historical news which my school made us read to improve our English, in addition to newspapers. It was also in Secondary school when I started to choose my own books to read and some of which that I loved was the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul which had inspirational and motivational lessons on friendship, love, poems and problems which the teenagers faced as they grow up and so on. The books in that series taught me values of respect and love for oneself and others and most importantly because they were true stories it was very heartwarming. It is a good book for teenagers as the lessons and advices are real and not fictional. I was also very much into romance novels and I read and love all of Nicholas Sparks romance novels and I re read them as the movies based on his books came out and are still being released. I have just finished his current book Safe Haven and I am looking forward to watching it on screen. I love the beautiful heartfelt quotes in his books and they never fail to warm my heart. I have all his quotes in my quote book and one quote that I would like to share here would be “You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter.” – Nicholas Sparks from The Rescue

I picked out this quote among his many quotes as this quote reminds me of one of my favorite books of all time which is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This book was introduced to me by my late German uncle who I was very fond off because of the child in him that I could always relate to which I till today aspire to keep alive and not be influenced by the general mentality of the grown ups, who fail to appreciate the beautiful things in life and who waste their life away with unnecessary worries and complain about how unhappy they are, because their happiness is based on meaningless things. I recommend that everyone should read this book and I hope that this book becomes one of the literature texts in Secondary schools one day! I have read this book again and again and each time there is always a lesson I can learn or relearn. I am always inspired and the book never fails to make my heart feel so warm. A beautiful book on the theme of love and here is a timeless quote from the book “ Now here is my secret, very simply: you can only see things clearly with your heat. What is essential is invisible to the eye”. – Antoine de Saint Exupery

Apart from romance and love I was also introduced to the genre of mystery from the Nancy Drew books which I never finished the entire series as after awhile although it was interesting I realized I was more into books that dealt with the matters of the heart. Another book I loved was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee which I was glad that I revisited in NIE as I learnt more about the messages and values and morals of the book. It was also this book that taught me the meaning of bildungsroman which was a term that I learnt from Dr Pat Wong in NIE. I also loved the books by Cecelia Ahern especially PS, I Love You and all her other books up to date. Another author that I loved was Lauren Kate and I read the entire Fallen series. Her books unlike the typical human romance was between a human and a supernatural fallen angel which was something different. I also read The Vampire Diaries books although I prefer the television series of it because of the cast. I also read the so called ‘greatest love story of all time’ being Romeo and Juliet which everyone loved but I hated because to me it showed me the folly of love which was not that great after all.

Moving on to my time in Junior college my taste in books changed to philosophy and I read a handful of non fiction books on that genre; such as books by Deepak Chopra which I enjoyed as they were very insightful such as The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind Body Medicine and The Path to Love: Spiritual Strategies for Healing to mention a few. These books have opened my eyes, mind and most importantly my heart about the nature of love in its true essence. As part of my Junior College’s curriculum I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and I fell in love with Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet and this book got me interested in her other romance books such as Emma and Sense and Sensibility. I also read Suchen Christine Lim’s Fistful of Colours for my local text in JC which I liked because of how the protagonist expresses herself through art and paintings. I also read Sylvia Plath’s Ariel book as part of my literature curriculum and I found all her poems highly disturbing and depressing. I also did Shakespeare as part of my curriculum which covered King Lear and Othello which I enjoyed because my literature teachers were awesome. I went on to read other Shakespeare plays and sonnets after my A levels as my school curriculum had sooooo much readings, as on top of literature I also did history and economics which had a zillion readings.

In NIE, I loved the insightful knowledge I gained from Gary Chapman’s books such as 5 Love Languages and Things I Wish I’d Known Before We Got Married which as the name suggests was on love and yes I love, love and I love reading to be a better lover of life. In NIE as part of the curriculum I read Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet. I am not much of a fan of Shakespeare and I do not believe that literature equals Shakespeare as some people would choose to believe but there are much to learn about the literary devices from those books. I also read many local and Southeast Asian texts in NIE as part of the curriculum. The books I enjoyed reading as part of the curriculum were The Crucible, Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and Gulliver’s Travels. The books that I read outside of NIE were Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist which I loved as it taught me that if I want something with all of my heart “the whole universe will conspire for you to achieve it”. The book also reinforced what I believed in that we should always follow our hearts as “wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.” I also loved other philosophical books like the online version of Unio Mystica by Osho from which I learnt about love and here is a quote in the book that speaks for itself “The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it is not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person — without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.”Another philosophical book which I enjoyed was Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband which had many beautiful quotes and one of which is “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” Finally I also love Jodi Picoult’s books as  she touches on the human emotion and so her books are very moving such as My Sister’s Keeper which is a beautiful story of how love wins over human weakness. I also loved the Hunger Games trilogy books by Suzanne Collins because of the portrayal of the main female protagonist Katniss Everdeen who is so strong and brave unlike the usual portrayal of females as weak and as damsels in distress. The book also educates the readers of how the governments and the people in charge, don't really care about us as we choose to believe and naively let ourselves to be controlled.

My choice of books has gone through some changes over the past few years. I started out my journey with a given selection of fantasy books which tapped into my imagination and brought me different worlds and I moved on to romance novels in my teen years and to philosophical and spiritual books in my young adult years. Currently I am into reading a book by Paul Tough titled How children succeed and it’s a good book to read which will either change the way you think about raising children, in our case teaching children or reinforce what we believe are essential life skills children should be equipped with. I shall end of my reading biography with a quote on the importance of reading. “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss