My passion for books

I read  The Magic Faraway Tree (by Enid Blyton) bought by mama when I was in prim two. We went to Berita Publishing every month to spend Rm50 book voucher allowance allocate by the company where papa worked That book made young me curious enough to open the first page and read.I was already reading fairly well the gawd awful Peter and Jane books with illustrations. Until that Magic Faraway Tree came into the scene…… There was just no stopping me. I was with the book on my bed from morning  ‘til  sunset not even bothered  to switch on the lights, so engrossed ….. I would simply squint my eyes  reading words after words in meagre light that comes through the window or from the light switched on outside my room. It was that bad.

 Then mama bought me  Enchanted Wood and  those Mr Pink Whistle books. The list goes on and looking back, I think they certainly affected my childhood. The Naughtiest Girl collection made me a bit on the rebel.  Malory Towers and St Clare made me study hard to go to boarding school. Then came the Famous Five collections that made me  a tomboy like Georgina. I was  impressed and idolized by the characters in  all those book same way I idolized Hermione of Harry Potter. (Wonder if Enid Blyton could have been a billionaire like J.K. Rowling if she lived now, in these commercial times)

Then my eyes were on Nancy Drew mysteries and  there were many of those books at home.  But when I was 11 onwards, I was also reading children’s fantasy  introduced  by my brother… reading about all those imaginary children who can go across worlds and travel through time with a mission. I had no favourite authors  at that time– I just read what was available  at home.

I started reading Sidney Sheldon when I was in secondary One. God knows what those books did to my hormones at that age.. hahaha.  There was Windmill of the Gods  at home and there were many other Sidney Sheldon books belonging to my pap.  That was when I discovered other authors like Eric Van Lustbader and Robert Ludlum. Papa never stopped me from reading those ‘forbidden’ thick books, but mama would say “Asyik baca buku pasal seks aje.” (You are always reading those books about sex!) Obviously, there were sexual scenes in many of those books  and papa want us to discover things for ourselves and be open minded about them..the fact is  it was just a good story – sex scenes aside. It was through his collection I discovered authors like George Orwell,Jane Austen and Ken Follet          Thank you Papa.


Looking back, I think, that experience instilled in me, the passion I have for books and the English language and it all started at home…..