Reading

I loved reading. I used to be the good student who borrowed books (other than reference books) from the library. When I was a primary school kid, "going to the library" was scheduled as one of our lessons in our timetable. We were given the opportunity to visit the library for 30 minutes weekly. The intention of school authority was to encourage students to read more. The teachers would "forced" us to lend one book, different language for each week. Malay and English books were definitely not my first choice as I prefer to read Chinese.

I always want to read more than one book per week, so I would visit the library other than the stipulated time in our timetable. However, my presence was not welcomed by the librarian. She refused to entertain me after my school hours, and if I want to lend books during my rest time, I need to do it before any class enter into the library (my rest time clashes with other classes' timetable to go to the library). Hence, I need to run to the library immediately after the school bell rang. I remembered running with Chai twin brothers, who are book lovers too, from the forth floor where our classroom were located to the tallest floor of another building. We had to pick the books from the shelf and complete the borrowing procedure as quick as possible.

After reading, we had to write the details and summary of the books we had read in our NILAM book. NILAM is a program that aims to inculcate reading habit among students, but the implementation had failed to achieve the objective. Most of the NILAM records I had written were made up with intention to submit my "homework". The implementation was even worse during my high school time. Students were forced to spent their Tuesday and Thursday morning to read an article provided by library. I was the "Wakil NILAM" who distributed the article, "monitoring" the students to ensure they read, although I couldn't recall any content that I have ever read.

Apart from borrowing books from school library, my dad used to bring me to a public library located nearby Petaling Street. Going to the library was something that I looked forward excitedly during weekends, unfortunately dad didn't bring me there every week due to his busy schedule. After I graduated from secondary school, I become busier and often missed the opportunity to go to the library with my dad. After some time, my dad had decided to stop paying for our membership.

I guess that's the point that I have stopped reading. After studying A Level at Sunway College, I spent most of my time on studying, hanging out with friends and smartphone. If I spend the time that I have wasted on scrolling through meaningless social media to read, I could've read many books that might expand my mind. Another reason I stopped reading was most of the books I found in Sunway library were English books. I find it very challenging to read English books due to my poor English and difference in styles of writing and culture.

Things got worse when I was studying my Degree. I became more active in joining extracurricular activities and socializing. To maintain my CGPA and spend more time with my loved ones, I rarely watch my favorite movies or dramas, yet alone spend time to read something other than my ACCA reference books. Spending too much time on studying during year one was definitely the most regrettable thing that I have done during my university days.

It's never too late to start again. "Now" is always right time to get back to reading. "No time to read" is merely an excuse, just like "no time to exercise" is a lie. It's never easy to balance my time wisely, but I think I am on my way.