I once mentioned in my earlier post that I need a good reading book to find and re-gain my sense of literacy that seems to have lost since I completed my post-graduate studies. Well, last Saturday my hubby took me and the boys to the public library in our little town to register us as members of the library. After completing the necessary registration forms and providing the document needed to support our application, we were given the official membership cards. Truth to tell, the last time I ever set foot in a library was when I was struggling to finish writing my final project paper which was approximately half a year ago. I loan three books, two of them were taken from the literature section and the last one was from the feminism shelve. Some of you may probably wonder, “Why literature?” Like I’
ve stated in my last couple of post, I am in dire need of getting a book that could help me rekindle my magic touch in my journal-writing. I thought to myself what better way to revive one’s sense of literacy than reading a literature book. One of the literature books that I borrowed which interest me the most is called “
A Novel in a Year” by Louise Doughty. Honestly, I’
ve never even heard of her name before I found this book. While reading her book, I soon found out that she’s a novelist with an MA in literature who had written a few novels. Intrigued by the way the bolts and nuts of novel-writing is encapsulated in honest, frank words that made her writing seems effortless, I googled up her name to learn more about this novelist who appears alien to me. The
google search result indicated that
Louise Doughty is a British novelist and best of all one of her novels was internationally acclaimed. Like most of my Malaysian friends, I am more familiar with American novelists like John
Grisham, Stephen King, Julie Garwood, Jude
Deveraux and Danielle Steel, to name a few. Well, there are some non-American novelists who made it to stardom once their books were adopted into box-office movies,
JRR Tolkien and
JK Rowling for instance. I guess the Americans have succeeded in Americanising most nations of the world not only through the vast promotion of their movies, television series and goods but novels as well. The Americanisation of the world’s nations; now that’s something interesting that I should blog about in my next post. (or could it be me who's been blissfully ignorant of the existance of famous writers from other part of the world?)
Let’s go back to my recent book reading. As I progressively read the chapters of Doughty’s book, I begun to recall all the books that I had read, the impact that each books left and the wonderful memories that I could somehow relate with the narration. Reading this book made me feel as though reading is an endless process. I used to have a friend who claimed that he’d be a ‘
nucking fut’ if he ever comes across books that he really likes. Unlike that particular friend of mine, reading has always been my favourite pastime since I was young. My interest in reading English novels however only commenced in my early teenage years which was a little later compared to most of my classmates back then. I could distinctly remember having my very first English novel at the age of 13, the most precious birthday gift my father had ever bought me. It was one of Nancy Drew’s infamous series of investigation novel. As far as I can remember, I was really hooked on to the novel that I found it hard to put it down. That always happened to me whenever I started to read a good novel. I love novel-reading primarily because well-written novels had constantly drifted me into the fantasy world as narrated by the novelist. That wonderful feeling of for once being taken away from reality has always been a good remedy for a bad gloomy day in my real life. Whenever I come to the final page of the novel, I’d found myself thinking that no matter how hopeless things may seem in reality, there is always a golden hope for good things to happen in my life, provided that I don’t get tired and bored of trying to work things out. My point is; get yourself a good book to read. You’ll be amazed at how the fantasy world created by those brilliant novelists could lift up your spirit. It may not be of any relevant to you, but it’ll do you good.
Having to share everything that I had with my five siblings turned me into an adolescent who despises children, an attribute which is the opposite of my mom who simply adores children. I could clearly recall the times when I chased children (especially the naughty ones) out of my house during my teen age years. My mom back then frequently reminded me not to mistreat those children. She kept saying that someday I might be blessed with children who’d be handful. I guess God heard her warning and made them come true just so that I’d learn my lesson. My two sons were quite handful especially the youngest one. Whenever I see adorable girls in their girly dresses, I do feel the clingyness of having one but I always fight the sense that I had with thoughts of my past childhood and the heftiness of bringing up the two boys. Even before I started breeding, I warned myself and my hubby not to have too many children plainly because (1) I don’t like children, (2) I don’t want my boys to go through the same childhood which I had experienced. I do want my eldest son to have a sense of responsibility but not as much as I did. Plus, I personally think that I am not capable of attending and entertaining the needs of too many children. I had experienced the lack of attention from my parents when I was young (cause they were busy attending to my younger siblings) and so I do not want my boys to feel that they are any least loved by me or my hubby. I want them to have all the love and attention from us.
after three weeks of holidaying, my hubby had to head back to manchester. once again, we were gonna be separated by the 13,000 miles distance and this time, the separation was even worse as my eldest son would be following my hubby back to manchester. on the night when my youngesnt son & i sent both of them to klia, my sons seemed happy especially my eldest son since this is his first long-haul flight and he knew that he'd be going to england, the place where you can find snow. both were so happy upon the sight of an airplane.
they didnt realise of what was coming ahead of their joy. they never knew that msia and england are so far from each other though time and time again i kept reminding my eldest that he'll be so far away from the home land. my eyes filled with tears as i kissed and hugged my eldest son but i fought the tears from running down my cheeks upon seeing his cheerful face. my sons exchanged goodbyes and waved happily while i on the other hand was so sad to see my eldest son & hubby made their way to the boarding gate. my sons didnt realise that they'll be separated for quite a long time from one another. they never knew that they wont be meeting each other (physically) for at least six months from the day the flight took off.
my hubby and i felt sorry that we had to separate our two sons who are very very close to each other. they always comforted each other whenever they were scolded. they were always protective of one another. i remember one time when we went back to my hubby's hometown in penang, a cousin of my hubby who's only two years old hit my eldest son with a toy. my eldest son didnt fight back but cried. my youngest son then grabbed the skinny little boy's arm and hardly pinched the boy. this is just a mere example of their close brotherhood.
right now, i cant wait to finish my studies so that i can take my youngest son to manchester in the soonest time cause this separation is slowly killing our souls. i can hardly wait for the day when we board our flight to manchester to be with the other half of us who are awaiting us there.