When did I first start to read? Actually, that didn't come out right. What I wanted to say was when did I actually become interested in reading, I mean, really interested in reading, as in reading just for the simple pleasure of it, not because you have to fill up your 'Projek Bacaan' book.
It would be pointless to try to pin-point the exact time in my life when I developed the love for reading, cos there really isn't one. I have no recollection of actually learning how to read or who taught me my first alphabet. All I know is that by the time I was in standard one, I already knew how to read...I think my teacher was pretty pissed-off with me for knowing how to read before she got a chance to teach me, that's why I was demoted to the last class in std 2...kind of like what happened to Scout in TKM...will get back to this story some other time.
As far as readers go, I wasn't what you could call a prolific reader. No sir!. I was just an avarage teenage reader who enjoyed reading The Famous Five series and The Hardy Boys & Nancy drew series. I graduated from The famous Five & Hardy Boys to Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes when I was 14 plus at this time I also started reading some Malay Literature stuff. Talk about that later.
During my degree years was when I first read Tolkien's Lord Of The Ring, all of Stephen King's books, some pretty heavy literature stuff like A Passage to India, Empire Of the Sun, Heart Of Darkness, Memoirs Of A survivor, Brighton Rock, Lord Of The Flies, Frankenstein plus most of Shakespeare's plays...of course! And I loved reading them, though I refused to admit it at that time.
You may wonder why I didn't read Mills & Boons and other romance novels that was in the market then...and now. For one thing, you can't find those novels in the school library, or I would have at least tried to read one...plus at that time, I never had enough money to buy novels. So, I never got to lay my hands on Mills & Boons and I haven't got a clue what those novels were about until I was at University.
I mentioned earlier that at this time I had also started reading some Malay Literature stuff. However, the Malay literature that I read was of a totally different genre. I absolutely loved reading all the 'Hikayat' literature...Hikayat Inderaputra, Hikayat Malim Deman, Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa etc. I suppose I'm a real sucker for myth and magic. But I also read 'Warisan' and 'Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan'. I have to say, I find these two novels very powerful in dealing with the essence of human behaviour...from innocence to experience, kindness and cruelty love and hatred, patriotism and betrayal. Yeah...I do read some serious Malay Literature books, and I'm proud of it too.
So... do any of these books have any effect on me or influence me in any way? Hard to say really. May be in the way I think and the way I write. I learnt, from books and experience that life is not always a bed of roses...sometimes you have to lie on a bed of nails, and if I have to go through it again, with the same sad story and the same sad end, I would...elementary Sherlock? You bet. Like the French says...Cest La Vie!!!
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