Reading

My first ever memory of learning to read was trying to follow the chinese characters of the children's sing-along music video. I remember my father being so impressed that my sister and I could read the lyrics of songs in the whole video by the second day since the video was purchased.

My parents are avid readers. Pa had a gigantic bookshelf in our living room upstairs. When I was young, I used to climb to the top of the shelf like a spider and see if there is any interesting books. Mummy reads lots of story books and pa always complained that she was passing on a bad habit of reading in the loo (especially while pooing) to us.

In pa's big bookshelf, there were two rows of adult fictions belonging to mummy which were of no interest to little children. But behind those books was where the gem where hidden - hundreds of copies of 'er tong le yuan' (lit = 'Children's playground', a children's magazine) which my father has kept from his childhood. My sister Yee Leng and I started picking a few copies every night to read on our bed before bedtime. We used to be reading those until 2 am. And mum wouldn't allow the lights to be on, so we read on our bed with the light from the wedged toilet door, I think that was when I started developing poor eyesight (but why does Yee Leng has perfect vision?).

I can't say for all my other sisters, but when I was young the place that I really look forward to going was the bookshop. Once in the bookshop, it can be hours before we come out. With both my parents engrossed with their own readings and the rest of us in our own favourite sections, it is usually one of us in hunger or with nature's call that prompt us that we have been in for too long.

I have never been too fond of library in schools. I used to be the sort of person who judge a book by its cover, and unfortunately the school library book cover were often not interesting enough to catch my attention. But I was almost ran wild the first time I went into the national library. We were supposed to be researching on our history project. Instead I brought piles of science books with nice colourful illustration and sat there reading them for ages. After secondary school, the first university (UTP) has an amazing library which kept the most up-to-date books with the most fancy covers. I was too bewilded and borrowed loads of books on flash, photoshop and webpage design which was my interest of that time. Then in Manchester, I was again surprised by the bigger and better library facilities provided. In my first and second year, I used to borrow up to the maximum quota of 20 books all the time (not always related to my course). Now, although I have calmed down a little (in terms of not always loaning 20 books from the main university library), I still borrow a few books from many different libraries (the public library and hospitals + departmental libraries) every now and then.

Again rubbing off my father, I am a fierce protector of my own books. All my new books have to be wrapped up in plastic covers. Apparently it's not a very popular thing to do in this part of the world - my friends asked me why do I laminate my books... Almost every school children do this in Malaysia. I would be very crossed if any pages are folded or if there are 'ears' on the cover page, I would be very crossed.

If I can be granted a wish, I would like all the books in the world and spend a lifetime reading. It tells me that who I meet, what I see and experience aren't the only things that exist in this world. There are so much more to discover. Reading imaginary fictions, it sometimes makes me wonder if weird things like alien and ghost are real, or even, if good values like the spirit of justice and kindness are in the human nature. Reading really broadens our minds. I would be very interested to find out what any of you think about reading. Have you been interested in reading? How has it affected you? What would you be without it?

Pic 1: All started here: pa's gigantic bookshelf. Roughly 4m x 3m?

Pic 2: YL and my first bookshelf

Pic 3: Pa also loves collecting old newspaper. Imagine this x10 in my house. He has to collect cuttings of interesting news and features. I hope he has fully abandon this hobby and switch the more efficient internet now

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