My reading journey

I remember loving reading since I was a young child. Every day after I came home from kindergarten I fondly recall eating duck rice for lunch and reading a giant pictorial book with my mum. It didn’t seem to matter at that time that I read the same book every day. That was my earliest memory of reading. Skip forward a few years, and my reading diet in primary school took the form of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Bookworm Club Stories (although on hindsight I didn’t think the Bookworm stories made for very good reading, however interesting and culturally relevant they were to a Singaporean 7-10 year old), the Little Miss and Mr Men series, and of course, Archie comics. Enid Blyton was probably what got me hooked on fantasy and fairy tales when I was older, and I really loved Roald Dahl (mostly his children’s fiction, less so the adult short stories), even till now. I guess his childrens’ fiction, with child protagonists, made it easy for us to identify with. 

Also, I was addicted to Animorphs by K. A. Applegate. I mean, which kid wouldn’t be fascinated by kids who had powers to turn into cool animals and using them to save the world? I wanted to be an Animorph too, with powerful alien friends.

In secondary school I remember reading Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter (which I think I started in primary school), and Christopher Paolini’s Eragon. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle really left me in wonder – I remember being struck by it at the end. On hindsight, my tastes appear to revolve around primarily fantasy and sci-fi genres, even from a young age. Perhaps it was also due to the fact that these are genres that naturally lend themselves to a curious inquiring mind. Of course, these were in addition to the secondary school literature curriculum titles, which were things like Animal Farm by George Orwell (I think I liked it but I hated the way it was taught), standard Shakespearean plays (Romeo and Juliet I think?), and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. These didn’t interest me as much, although I finished reading them all. Romeo and Juliet was probably the hardest to get through mainly because of the language.

I count myself privileged to be part of the pioneering IB programme because of the kind of literary exposure I got through the reading list, as compared to what I would otherwise get if I had gone to do Literature at JC. “Om is bow, arrow is soul, and Brahma is the arrow’s goal, it must be struck unswervingly” echoes in my mind as a quote from Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha which I inadvertently memorised. Together with Huckleberry Finn, Paddy Clarke, Miss Julie, The God of Small Things and a number of other world literature works, I slowly found my reading repertoire expanding. I had enjoyed the reading on the programme, which segued neatly into deciding to do literature at university level. I figured that my love for reading would prove helpful in this pursuit. 

Non-academically I think I began to read many thrillers and espionage kinds of things. I read all of Dan Brown’s works very quickly (the plots got repetitive after 2 books) and also immersed myself with books from authors like Michael Crichton, Matthew Reilly and James Rollins, who were constantly on the bestsellers list for this genre. Once I find an author I like, I have a tendency to try to read all of his or her works, which was the case for this genre. 

At university, studying literature had its perks, where reading equals doing work. During this time, apart from reading the classics and going through various historical time periods, I also found C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, which I later regret not having read earlier. I enjoyed them immensely, together with J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The LOTR trilogy was something I remember trying hard to read when I was in primary school but gave up halfway for various reasons like tiny font size and the inconvenience of it being a 3-in-1 volume, which meant that it was unusually thick and heavy and bothersome to bring around. I also felt that perhaps my command of English was not competent enough to finish reading it, much less appreciate it. I was glad I returned to it though, because I was left in wonder of the world that Tolkien created. 

I also loved Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, both of which moved me deeply through his vivid characterization and storytelling skills. Although I didn’t have a chance to take the science fiction and fantasy module, I read through some books on the reading list, and had a lot of fun. Diana Wynne Jones’ Hexwood is a classic (the twist at the end gave me a surprise), and Dan Simmons’ Illium conceptually took my breath away because it was an intelligent marriage of Greek mythology and science fiction, which he pulled off admirably. I recently almost completed The Vorkosigan Series (of quite a number of books) by Lois McMaster Bujold, which tells the story of one Miles Vorkosigan and spans many worlds and civilizations in a projected future.

A few other books had a profound effect on me: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, which gave me insights into a dystopian vision of a bookless world; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which I greatly enjoyed (and I also loved Baz Luhrmann’s movie adaptation, although some may disagree) and would most aptly describe as beautifully tragic; and lastly, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker, both of which were texts that I simply liked and read more than once but also lent themselves as works to read and understand literary theory through. Somehow these two were the closest I got to the horror genre without scaring myself.

I hope that I will be able to continue to cultivate a reading habit that will withstand the stresses and demands of time in a teaching career because it is something that I thoroughly enjoy. I am secretly pleased that I can find opportunities to share the joy of reading with my students in the future, knowing that we are living in a generation that substitutes reading books with (not necessarily reading) iPads.