Rachel's Reading Biography

My experience with reading started at a young age when my parents read to me before bedtime. When I displayed an interest in books (as a result of the regular sessions of bedtime storytelling), they introduced me to the Peter and Jane primer series. I found the primer boring, because of the lack of a proper plot or conflict, and was very glad when I could finally “graduate” and move on to proper books with more interesting content, such as the Enid Blyton series and the Disney Princess series, which consisted only of five princesses back then, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Cinderella, and Snow White. I revelled in the make-believe world of pixies, elves, fairies and fairy godmothers, often wishing that the real world that we lived in had such beautiful and mysterious creatures as well.

In primary school, I picked up the Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley series, along with a few of the Little House on the Prairie series. I also remember reading Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess (by Frances Hodgson Burnett), a few of Roald Dahl’s books, as well as other books whose titles I cannot recall. Looking back, I think that it is intriguing that most of the books that I read then were about girls (whether children or teenagers), and their lives. Perhaps I could identify with the viewpoints of these female characters, or perhaps I bought into the idea of these romanticized notions of living in a peaceful, somewhat pastoral world as depicted in the texts. Toward the end of primary school, I picked up books such as the Diary of Anne Frank and Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Ma, autobiographical texts with darker and more adult themes.

In secondary school, I had less time for reading, with an increased workload and CCA schedule. However, because I took literature as a subject, I could still read within curriculum time. Lower secondary literature consisted of books such as Sing to the Dawn and Rice Without Rain, while upper secondary literature consisted of books such as King of the Castle and Twelfth Night. I enjoyed literature lessons not just because of the time that I could spend ‘legitimately’ reading, but also because of the analysis of these texts in class, something that I had never consciously done before. It brought a new lens to my reading, the idea that I could interpret the texts in different ways. It was also the first and last time I did a ‘proper’ study of a Shakespearean text. In the meantime, I also picked up The Clay Marble, another text by Minfong Ho, various ‘chick lit’ such as Confessions of a Shopaholic, and magazines.

Moving on to junior college, I was very excited about literature lessons: I was convinced they would provide more in-depth and critical discussions and readings of the texts in the curriculum. The texts I studied were selected poems by Wilfred Owen, two Dublin plays by O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars, The Great Gatsby, and The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. By that time, I was more interested in meeting up with friends or watching television programmes in my spare time. Thus, I ‘stopped’ reading for a while, focusing only on my A-level texts.

This break from reading continued into university, where I read mainly texts that were required for my modules. Some of these include: Midnight’s Children, Shame, Disgrace, Foe, Robinson Crusoe, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, The Bluest Eye, Love, and the list goes on.

Right now, I’m slowly starting to read again. I am currently interested in Asian American, specifically, Chinese American, literature. This interest could have been sparked off from my thesis writing, where I wrote on Chinese American Literature. I have recently finished reading A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei, and am planning to pick up Please Look After Mom by Kyung Sook Shin. Hopefully, this effort to start reading again will continue and develop, allowing me to step into the different worlds of literature again.