Waking up from the sleep, I sat on my bed and looked around. It looked like my sister did not turn off the lights again. What a pain. Scratching my head, I started searching my phone but I could not find it. Then my eyes fall on the books next to my pillow. Grinning stupidly, I opened the books and flipped through the pages and see which chapter I haven’t read yet. It looked like I slept on the book again just like the day before. I put the book aside and started to lie down on the bed again. While hugging my pillow, my past memory started to play in my mind. Before this, I would never read any thick books before I sleep. Recently it started to change.
I still remember, during my childhood, I did not like reading. I only read when examination came. Of course, reading only came with the force from my parents. Or else I was going to play around the whole day even though examination was only on the next day. What to do, I did not find any pleasure in reading books. Moreover, it was very difficult to get books that could arouse my interest. My mother did buy books for me. It worked only for a moment before I throw the books away from me. The main reason why I did that was because the plots were not interesting (Sorry mom!). Generally, most books are about fairy tales, legendary and many more. That were the usual themes that I always found the book. So it was kind of boring for me.
However, when I was in standard 4, my habit started to change. Reading began to be a part of my life. The love of reading started to grow and I did not realize since when I put reading as one of my hobbies. Which it was contrast than before that I hated reading most. The funny thing was my love of reading was not on usual books, but on comics. For me, comics had everything that I wanted in my reading. It had illustrations, simple sentences, interesting plots, creative, unexpected and many more.
I did not remember how I started reading comics and bought them. But I know that my younger brothers were the one who influenced me in reading comic. And I enjoyed it very much. Every month I would save my money to buy it. Moreover, the three of us made co-operation and agreement in buying comics every months using our school pocket money. Each of us would buy different comics that were appealing to us. The comics that we were usually bought are doraemon, dragon ball, Kawan, and many more. The three of us would exchange it when we bought it and read it. Remembering it right now could not stop me from giggling since it was so funny, challenging and entertaining.
Then, my parents discovered and got angry. One of my beloved comics was burnt into ashes by my father in front of me. I was crying that time when my father did that and I hate him so much. However, that did not make me stop from buying comics. Well, I was a bit stubborn and did not care what would happen if my father discovered it. This time, my brothers and I planned to buy it secretively. Fortunately, it worked and we kept all the books in secret place after all. My mother nagged to me all the time when she found out that I read comics. Even until now. She said that comic would make my language became worse. And she was not lying. My language became worse since I read comics. That was the main reason why I did not get any A’s with language subjects. Even with my own native language subjects. What to do! I love comics more than I love the subjects. If the textbooks were changed into comics, maybe I would get A’s in all my subjects and become and excellent student in Malaysia.
If anyone asked me, haven’t you tried reading other reading materials. I would said I did! But it did not work. I used to try reading any type of reading materials instead of comics such as magazines, newspapers, story books, novel and many more. It just worked only for a moment before I started to read comics again. The other books did not appeal me enough. Maybe none of them was really my type. Plus, I had a perception that thick books were not interesting. This reading habit continued when I furthered my studies in college. I made new friends there and surprisingly many of them loved comics so much. But there was only one of them that I could not forget. She knew everything about comics and when both of us started talking, none of our friends could stop us. We could discuss it everywhere including on the stairs in the middle of the night.
One day, she introduced me to an English novel; a very thick one. The book entitled The Pirate and The Pagan was written by Virginia Henley. She said that it was very interesting and suggested it to me. At first, I was quite reluctant to take it from her since I did not like reading English novel. Moreover, my English was bad and the book was too thick for me to read and finish it. Plus, it pained me a lot to open the dictionary if I did not understand the words. When I opened the book just to give a peek inside it, i screamed inside my head. The words are small and there were more than 300 pages.
I just looked at her first after I gave a peek inside and closed the book. But she just smiled at me and kept persuading me to read it. Lost at her words persuasion, I accepted it. The reason why I did it because I did not want to hurt her. So I borrowed from her. At first, I just ignored the books. But later I read it since I was really bored. Amazingly, I found out that books was interesting and managed to finish it within 5 days. I did not even go to sleep just to finish it. That was the first English novel that I ever read.
When I entered university, I started to read English books. Surrounding by TESL students who most of them love English novels, my love of reading English became deeper although I did not read it everyday. I borrowed books from my friends. For starter, I read the thin one which most of them were romance books. It’s not I did not have any gut to read the thick ones. It just I did not know what genre that really suitable with my personality. Besides, it was difficult to find thick books that really catered my pleasure in reading. So I asked some of my friends who love reading and they suggested a few good and enjoyable books. Since then, I’m quite addicted to this kind of habit. From that moment, comics started to disappear from my life. This was maybe because it was difficult to get comics when I was in university. Besides, I was quite busy and the only time that I got to read the comics was during the semester break.
Thinking deeply now, reading has become a part of my life. Starting from comics, to English novel, I found reading is a good way to enjoy my free time. I love it especially when I easily got absorbed into the books and did not realize that the time has been past quickly. Although sometime I have troubles in understanding certain words, it become easily, understand when I read it deeply. Plus, I take time in reading a book since I read word to word. Although some of my friends said that I am too slow in reading books, but that is my reading after all. Anyhow, no matter how long I take time in reading, how choosy am I in selecting books, I love reading with all my heart.
p/s thank you to all who gave lovely comments to me before.
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