As with many other children in Singapore, my first memory of reading begins with the Peter and Jane books which many parents of that time would bag for their child in a bid to get them to read something, anything. In time, I graduated from those and moved on to the Enid Blyton books like a good Singaporean child. Thanks to my mother, who encouraged and made sure that weekly trips to the library were made, I then developed a healthy liking for reading, going through many classics like Black Beauty, Great Expectations and The Secret Garden although I’m sure I did not fully understood those novels fully.
Reading was a journey to undertake, with stops made for the usual Sweet Valley and Harry Potter books and the less famous Chrestomanci series. These served as my escape from the newly found stress of upper primary work which was mostly geared towards the PSLE. I enjoyed countless hours reading through these novels, again and again, never finding them any less boring the next time I picked them up.
From there, I moved on to secondary school and more mature readings. I’m sorry to say, my reading materials there consisted very little of school readings and a lot of this new discovery, the romance novel. Obviously that did not help me very much in academics but till now, I still enjoy my Judith McNaught, Sidney Sheldon and embarrassingly the Shopaholic series.
It was not till my JC days when Literature became something I had to study for that I became interested in actual Literature. Othello, Top Girls and the poems of Boey Kim Cheng filled my days, and it was not till then that I began to understand that there is more to reading than merely the plot. Themes, devices and the impact of language use in these novels hold meanings which I have yet to consider, and this set the course for my undergraduate studies where I became more exposed to different genres and theories.
The many units which we were required to clear in university led me to more and more novels, some which I truly enjoyed and still bring out to revisit from time to time, and others which I can barely get past the first chapter. Nevertheless, something about those many, many novels which we had to plough through in our undergraduate years never failed to teach me something new. Because of my studies, I was introduced to Love In The Time of Cholera by Marquez, The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and many more. These are some of my favorite novels which has since led me to the discovery and enjoyment of other many other novels outside of course work. Having had the privilege of being equipped with the skills to read between the lines and appreciating the nuances offered in novels, I have since added Lolita, The Handmaid’s Tale, and even managed to find a love of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Now, through friends’ enthusiastic recommendations, I am beginning to my reading of Agatha Christie, which I missed out since I spent my years reading romance novels, and am enjoying every bit of it. Thankfully, its a large collection and I have many more to go through.
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