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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Why read?

The reading habit helps develop multiple skills and to gain useful knowledge besides putting readers on the fast track to enlightenment and awareness.

COMMENT

It is terribly disappointing to often read in the media that Malaysia is hardly considered as a reading society.

The fact that Malaysians of all walks of life prefer to spend their leisure time on other activities while not allocating sufficient time to read is a definite setback towards building a more enlightened and progressive nation.

Why read? Reading is an avenue by which we accumulate knowledge to enrich and better our lives and the lives of others. Every great nation was built using the medium of reading as a pillar or building block to become a society transformed to face challenges.

Reading is a building block of success and its importance cannot be overstated nor underestimated. It remains for us to be avid readers to ensure we know of our world and the way we get to discover our universe is through the medium of reading.

Furthermore, there is something ecstatic and enchanting about reading. And it is often a delight to savour what is available to read today. Children of today especially, who will be the leaders of tomorrow, should constantly strive to fill their minds with wisdom, knowledge and an insightful understanding of life by reading.

Much can be said of the world of reading and those who write for us. And whatever the language we choose to read, let it always be a fruitful venture for us. However, over the last few decades, the growing importance of the English language has caused it to become the medium of communication worldwide.

While the English language is the foremost language today, do not forsake our mother tongue. It is important for a healthy balance to be drawn between our mother tongue and English. The English language should be used, however, to help us ascend the steep hill of global communication or what has become known now as our borderless world.

In my case, as an eight-year-old boy, my window to the world of reading began to open up when I received as a birthday gift, a hardcover copy of “Robinson Crusoe” from my eldest brother, who went on to enter the world of journalism and writing.

Now, over fourty years later, I recall clearly how the book shaped my thinking and being. The most important virtue that was imbued in me after reading the book was how to be resourceful in life. And by the time I finished with “Robinson Crusoe” my reading appetite began to grow.

I went on to become an ardent reading fan of the great writers of the world. In keeping with my age and peers, I took a liking for the Enid Blyton “Famous Five” series of books. This formed the basic literary diet of my primary schooling years.

The Liverpool series

Textbooks and workbooks from school were dull but had to be considered essential reading, just as homework and household chores had to be done. By all means, though I was developing into a bookworm, I was also quite formidable in sports and games where I displayed my physical prowess.

But reading held me with fascination. By the time I was in my teens, I made a sudden and dramatic switch to heavy reading. This was because my eldest brother, who was thirteen years my senior, was being inducted into the world of journalism.

Leon Uris was a famous writer in the 70s with “Exodus” and “Armageddon.” I toyed with a few chapters of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” before giving up. That was real heavy reading for a teenager.

But because of my penchant for literary works, I digested in full Thomas Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd,” my eldest sister’s English literature book for the Malaysia Certificate of Examination back then.

This sister of mine could be considered bookish to an extent but generally had a preference for the Mills & Boons romantic series. There was I digesting it and getting to know why “the earth moved” by the saucy novels of Harold Robbins.

While the feminine world was enlightening in a sense, getting to know of a woman’s longing for passion and love, thanks to the Liverpool series of my sister, this formula was a little soft and soppy for my consumption and I went back to devour what was in my eldest brother’s collection especially the spaghetti western books.

But there were also serious works in his collection which I read such as John Milton’s (Paradise Lost), VS Naipaul (The suffrage of Elvira) and George Orwell (Animal Farm). These were a few of the many titles that were scattered in my house which I took a fancy to reading.

Come to think of it, it was a little funny when I read “Animal Farm” because I took it literally, not realizing that it was a political satire. When the animals on the farm went against the owner of the farm I had scant knowledge that it was an uprising or revolution until I re-read the book with Orwell’s best seller “1984” some years later.

Upon leaving school, my favorite haunt in those days was the British Council Library at Bukit Aman. Imagine how appealing it was for me to read of a physician who struggled to finance his medical studies at a prestigious university in Scotland by working in a mental asylum, only to discard his lucrative medical practice years later to become a writer.

This I gathered by reading A.J. Cronin’s “Adventures in Two Worlds,” an autobiography by the writer who had written “The Citadel” that went on to become a major motion picture.

It led me to purchase “A Song of Sixpence,” also written by Cronin, when the floating library “Doulos” docked at Port Klang. This is a ship that has been transformed by Christians into a bookstore that travels around the world to promote the reading habit.

Great Malaysian Novel

But there were certain books, unheard of by me, that I remember accidentally delving into, like “I was a Stranger” by Sir John Hackett. This remarkable account of the Battle of Arnheim had an impact on me as it was written by Sir Hackett after leaving the British Army to become the principal of King’s College, noted for producing eminent barristers and solicitors.

Hackett had a fluid use of words that made me yearn to develop a similar style. It dawned on me then what I read once in a book for aspiring writers: “Writing begins with imitation, then innovation and finally, invention.”

Along the course of my career as a teacher, when I was asked to contribute to the groundwork or focus group for the publication “S-Files,” which profiles the lives of top Malaysian entrepreneurs, I felt honored. And though that was all that was required of me, no writing whatsoever, it was really a pleasure to read the book later considering that most of my feedback was acted upon.

Of late, I also had a greater honor of providing input for the book, “The Colour of My Mind,” an autobiography of the struggle of an individual suffering from mental illness. This was an eye opening venture as I consider the book being of some use and importance to those whose lives have been traumatized by mental and emotional upheaval.

Due to the accumulated experience and knowledge I have garnered from teaching, I am now at work on a teacher’s training manual to assist primary schoolteachers to develop intelligence in children in a holistic way. This is an ambitious effort on my part but I have been steadily compiling the material over the years and feel the time has come for my venture to bear fruit.

Perhaps now Malaysians will rise up not only to take on the challenge of reading more but also of delving into the arena of writing, and hopefully, a local writer will be able to come up with the much-awaited Great Malaysian Novel that can rank alongside the great books of the world.

This should certainly serve as an inspiration for others to carve a niche for themselves in the literary world for posterity to savour. It all begins, however, with teaching ourselves how to read and write.

In other words, it might be good for most of us Malaysians to go back to the two basic Rs – Reading & Writing. From then on, the world is opened up to us to savour and enjoy the world of reading and writing.

Happy Reading Malaysia!

Christopher Fernandez has been teaching and writing throughout Asia since 1984.

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