.: Reading :.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him - Maya Angelou -

I am an avid book reader. It must have been because my parents have been reading to me since I was a toddler. I remember that my parents were proud of the fact that I can read a book by the age of three – tho they still am skeptical whether I memorized the words, or actually know how to read the book itself. They claimed that I do know how to point to each word and read them out correctly, but somehow they thought it was impossible for their daughter to be too intelligent at that age, perhaps they must be thinking the apple couldn’t possibly fall far from the apple tree *sneaky grin*

And tho my parents did encourage me to read at a very young age, for some odd reasons, they weren’t as encouraging as they were when I started schooling. Perhaps they wanted me to pay more attention to reading my school textbooks than story books. So, unlike some friends, I didn’t really have the luxury of a big library at home. But that didn’t stop me from reading. My favorite back in those days were novels such as Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, which I can get aplenty from my primary school library! I read a couple of Enid Blyton books too, which I thoroughly enjoy, but nothing was more enjoyable that the detective series. I remember that I will be rushing home to finish the last few chapters of my Nancy Drews and sometimes, much to my mom’s displeasure, read till the wee hours of the morning.

Oh, and yes, perhaps my parents are right to ‘restrain’ me from more books. My homework barely gets done (except for those whom I know the teachers WILL punish – Pn.Devi for one!). I can skip lunch and/or dinner just to catch a few pages. I even read in between commercial when watching TV! Surprisingly, as much as Sweet Valley was ‘in-trend’ at that moment, it never really caught on to me. I also have had some friends who were crazy over manga’s like Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, etc, but I wasn’t really such a big fan either.

Then in secondary school days, I would read whatever I can get my hands on in the school library, and one of the privilege of being a school librarian back in my days is that I get to loan six books instead of three books! Bliss! :)

Nowadays, I realize that I have less time to spare on reading. However, I do make it a point to go to the library as frequent as I could. On average, I would read about a book a week. Which translate to about 50ish book a year. Sometimes, on a good week, I would be able to complete three to four books, but on a bad busy period, it could go on without reading a book for a month. Aside from the books I get from the library, I have also been subscribing to Readers Digest, so I get a book every month.

I must say that 50ish book a year is quite good, given that the average book a Malaysia would read is about 2 books per annum. I, however, must confess that the “quality” of books I read may not be there as I prefer to have “light” books to read as oppose to deeper, reading-for-knowledge books. I suppose to a certain extend, I rather be reading something enjoyable and use less and less of my brain cells, especially prior to bed time, rather than books that triggers me to think. The last thing I need is to be a catalyst for my already hyperactive-brain.

I have also discovered EBooks of late, I mean I have heard of it, it's just that I only started downloading EBooks ever since I got my IPad 2, a birthday gift from Daddy. Not really used to it, coz it just can't beat reading the book in an old fashion way. But we will see if I can get the hang of it!