Story

In my childhood, I read quite a bit. In fact, before I read I was read to, almost every night. According to my mother, the only thing that would soothe me to sleep was a story or a song. These were mostly nursery rhymes and children story books, complete with hand animation and animal voices. I later learnt simple English through the ladybird series with many repetitive simple words. Then had the entire series of Enid Blyton and I read them over and over again. I remember them filling the shelves.. such a nice memory! There was also the classic Walt Disney stories that were printed on these huge books that reached up to my shoulders that would double up as pretend forts when it rained. Those mesmerized me the most. My favourite, according to the mother, was Jungle book. I realize though, I have always been attracted to the visuals of a storybook, yet I still read, a lot. These books were when I was younger than 9. There was the famous five and the bookworm club. (I have to admit I absolutely loved Mr. Meddle and I would be in bed just laughing to myself for a good part of the day.) My favourite of all time was however, Roald Dahl and I read them late into Primary 6. My favorite is the BFG. I had a wild imagination, and also had an imaginary friend so this book really stuck with me.

I think it was at some point the harry potter series came out and my mom would buy me the books, knowing that I would love them. I was one of those  annoying children who'd insist to get it on the first day it came out together with the complementary t-shirt. I think that's where I got my myopia from because lights out would be at 11pm and I would usually read under the covers with a flash light. I realized at some point I couldn't tear my eyes away from the books and would read for hours. I also picked up Chronicles of Narnia and well, Sabrina the teenage witch. I also picked up some books by Phillip Pullman such as The Subtle Knife. I think my obsession with fantasy novels was almost never-ending. This later graduated to the Dan Brown series, and another fantasy series by Patricia A. McKillip.

I think I was a long spell of non-reading in Secondary School to Junior College where I hardly read anything because there was just, too many obligations. I did however, (continuing the fantasy theme into science fiction), pick up the entire Haruki Murakami series, of which my favorite was, and still is, Kafka by the Shore. Upon recommendation of a good friend, I also really enjoyed all the books of Chuck Palahniuk, as it was pretty bad-ass. This later evolved into books by J.G Ballard. I must also admit I liked the series of Resident Evil books. I read Paulo Coelho though I never really liked it. I loved Oscar Wilde's  I did read halfway into Sartre's being and nothingness. What tided me through arduous days was Rainer Maria Rilke's poems and letters and I often carried a beautifully bound copy with me. The texts that I did in Secondary School were Macbeth King Lear Great Expectations, etc.. But my favorite was Boey Kim Cheng and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

In University, I picked up a range of books, although mostly philosophical in nature. They were Simulacra and Simulation by Baudrillard, Post-production Nicholas Bourriaud, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin, Maurice Merleau Ponty's Eye and Mind.. etc. I think it was more on relational aesthetics and the such.. I'm not sure this counts as part of my literary history but I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.