Roll On: Reading - An Alien to Malaysian or is it just me?

To be frank, I wasn't big on reading. For the bigger part of my past, the idea of reading itself is somewhat weird. Most of the people I knew don't read and those who reads was not religiously. Maybe this public figures just published a book or some film was made from it or someone you look up to suggest the book - usually, the uplifting your heart kind of book. The ones who read was more spurs of the moment kind of action instead of the needs to read a book.

The needs!

That's the main keyword - the main turning point for me. Not an exact 360 degrees kind of turn but I turn a bit somehow. I and most people I knew never thought reading as a need for living. I'm not sure was it during my high school or my matriculation that a teacher/lecturer point out that we need to fulfill a certain quota each year on the books we read. She told us that after she learned that none of us can really point out if we even read a book for that particular year. I remember the teacher/lecturer's response to be just mildly shocked and a bit of hopelessness because I think she knew how reading is not a culture at all.

The Star, 2013

Malaymail Online, 2016.

Source

From there on, I got this kind of nagging feeling that lack of reading somehow devalues my life. I don't think she even told us why we need to read - the kind of book, how it would help us, why we should take it more seriously. But the fact that she pulls we need to read a certain number of books per year really got into me.

It might be due to the fact that English teacher has always had a special rank in my thought, but anywho.

It goes to all kind of people for all kind of age. Reading enrich your life! Eureka!

I do actually reads. During my primary high school, my best friend and I were always competing for the Nilam contest. Competing is so overrated because she always wins and quite naturally it was usually us who wins since well, we are the ones doing extra while others were just fulfilling the requirement dictated. I remember how the teacher in charge of the school library has become one of the dearest teachers of us since I don't have any books. 

Unlike my friend, her mother has instilled and preserved the spirit of reading in her that actually I only learn to realize about Harry Potter since she owned all of them. My mom does instills reading passion but I think that was just to help my English since she only bought them when I was seven or eight something. I love my brightly illustrated and enchanting English storybook about chicken and stuff and I do think such expose at a young age has made me and my sister consider English to be something common.

Ground control to Major Tom - we are swerving from the main point here!

So after reaching to my past history of reading and that teacher/lecturer's big questions on how many books we read - I try to take reading seriously. But only in my thought LOL. It was so hard to find time to read during degree and honestly, the book's content just wasn't compelling enough for me. Sometimes, it was actually very compelling but then I just don't really feel like reading it all the time. Reading itself is a new habit - a new input into your life routine. I read so little for those four years in degree and even now I have lots of free time, reading has not been much of an attractive option.

But Allah forbids I hate reading. I really do love reading so much. Each new soul I knew and each new places I travel from the mere action of reading has thought me so much. Even from these small numbers of books, I learn a lot! Yet, the most amazing thing is that how I get to learn myself more. So here am I, pushing myself to read more. I seriously believe this love/hate/boring relationship is partly due to shaitan, temptation to waste time and stuff.

The main reason I choose to dwell into this is that I am chosen to become a curator for twt_buku. I just apply it for fun and now I am mildly concerned that people expect so much from me. But the challenge seems interesting enough so I'm doing it for sure.

Do I only just let myself to read when I feel like it? No! I won't achieve anything by that. I have few tricks up my sleeve. Through blogging, I come to know some bibliophile and these folks really help to keep the reading spirit high. Not only that, I keep track of the book I read via Goodreads so that I can visually see my achievement. I even set a 25 books goals this year (poorly achieved but it is still something). I try to read at least two books at a time so that I can rotate between both and not easily feel bored or that feelings that like a heavy load of things has set into me so let me rest for a day or months. I keep the book in plain view to remind me to read it and because it looks cool to have some books across the house. 

Source

However, that nagging feeling how not reading would devalue my life is kinda the main push here. All those "reminders" would eventually lead me here - I need to read as if reading is the very breath I took each second.

So, what's reading for you?