Personal Reflections on My Reading Journey

Come to think of it, my reading journey was an unexpected one.

When I was young, I wasn’t particularly interested in books or trips to the library. I had little interest in reading, and my parents didn’t inculcate in my siblings and me such a hobby. The only instances when I got close to books were when I went to the tuition centre near my home that was situated inside a library. It wasn’t a public library per se, but a library managed by the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC). You could borrow books, sure, but I never got to do that more often due to the fact that I had better things to do than stay still with a book in my lap. I mean, I was an active young boy. Who could blame me for wanting to play and run around with my brother? I didn’t have the motivation, knowledge or maturity to embrace the benefits and enjoyment of reading.

Fast forward a few years, and I entered high school. I chose the Library Club as my Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) but ironically, I still wasn’t an avid reader. This time, it was mainly because of the rigours of studying for the exams that I did not have enough time to read. Okay, well, it wasn’t like I read zero books. I read some books. I tried to read. As a student librarian, I was always shelving books and that act itself ineluctably exposed me to a wide variety of eye-catching books that never failed to pique my interest. Whether I completely read them is another issue altogether. But I did try, especially during the holidays, to read some books. I remember reading the first two books in the Harry Potter series and they were truly hard to put down. I didn’t pick up the rest in the series because they looked so dauntingly thick. Perhaps I should find a day to continue the series?

Anyway, before I bore you with the minute details of my life as a half-hearted reader, let me fast forward again a few years to my stint in National Service (NS). This was the period of my life that I truly grew as a reader. Partly because I had quite a lot of free time in NS, I almost always turned to reading as a form of leisurely entertainment. My NS buddies can even attest to the fact that I was always with a book whenever I did my sentry duties. Books were like my close companions, who never left me when I needed them. The boredom from staring ahead into the sea doing nothing (I was in the Navy) nudged me to turn my eyes to the books in front of me on the table. I found myself delighting in the fact that I was able to learn something new (as in the case of non-fiction books) and view the world in a different perspective (as in the case of fiction books). Instead of whiling away the seemingly interminable hours, I read books to feed my mind and prevent its so-called ‘rusting’ in NS. And just like that, I consumed books one after another, like someone with an insatiable appetite at the all-you-can-eat buffet.

In 2019, I read a total of 118 books. I embraced the variety of experiences books gave me and felt my worldview broadened. I saw the world from the perspective of a thirty-nine-year-old housewife in Charleston, from a queer lady living in Britain, from a cafe owner in Tokyo, from a woman in South Korea struggling with gender inequality… I learnt about the environmental effects of eating chilli crabs, the inner workings of the People’s Action Party (PAP) in Singapore, the worrying American “scammer culture”… Basically, I grew more knowledgeable and informed about the world that I was living in.

I gained confidence. I gained multiple perspectives. I gained a love for more knowledge, and I gained reading as a habit. I enjoyed the process of self-education and amassing knowledge. I felt I was becoming wiser.