Snohvit

Reading, and Reading.

This is one of those nostalgic posts again, so any of you

who've had their meals, might want to skip, because of the

adult content. Or the mushy-mushy, tersengih sorang-sorang

feeling sewaktu membaca (or menulis), mengingatkan kisah

lama yang berkulapuk dan berdebu.

 

Reading had been one of my favourites, and it hadn't been for

quite a long time, and recently, it's been back. Not due to the fact

that I've rediscovered them again.

 

Well, sort of.

 

 

I've realised that for me to survive in this city with even less and less

of things to do (or routines to tire me out), I had to revive some of

the things that I used to do.

 

Which is jogging.

 

 

Then I realised it was winter. Okayy, uncheck jogging, check

reading.

 

I think I'd check back jogging at summer. With these strong winds,

I'd probably end up in a ditch somewhere.

 

The point being is, I like reading when I like reading.

 

 

Even when I was a kid, I liked those cheap (well, they're not cheap

in those times) Beano and Dandy comics, mini-novels, crime

detective stuff.

 

I read Transformers comics too, which made the bulk of my comic

collection. Ghost Rider, Punisher. He's a cool guy. Partly due

to my cousin's influence. He's an avid collector, so whenever I

came to his house (I was the poor cousin :P) I went on these

reading binge. I think in some light, he'd be upset in some way

because some of those novels were quite expensive and for

collector's delight and display only.

 

ironic.

 

 

Not to say I didn't buy any, I did. Strangely enough, when it came

to actual novels, I preferred non-fictions. Hm.

In high school, I think all the rage at that time was this guy named

Ahadiat Akashah. In fact, I'm not sure if that's his real name. But

he wrote pretty good things on pulp. One of them was a book by

the title named 'Jibam'.

 

It was not that thick, that book. But it was a good read. By the time

you'd finish the book, you'd think Jibam was your neighbour.

 

Selang dua pintu.

 

 

Anyways, I was in Form 1, and this senior in Form 2, he's a prefect

and he saw me bring the book during the night prep class. I thought

for sure I was busted. It turned out he wanted to borrow it.

 

So, me being the scared junior, happily handed the book to him,

with the promise of the book turned in 2 days later.

 

It did. With a few things changed.

 

 

I wrote my name on the first page, and saw it had been covered with

liquid paper (alamak panjang gila perkataan). Then I saw another

writing covered. It was his name.

 

I guess he wanted to impress a girl, saying "Hey, I've got the book,

you want to read it? It's mine, you know?"

 

And she'd be like "Eee, best nye u nie."

 

 

From a bussiness mind, that actualy made sense.

 

 

High school's high school, after all. You don't have the budget to

buy expensive things. In fact, I'm pretty sure you're not interested

in the high-end reading stuff anyways. So all that is left is these

budget pulp fictions. Things like Bacaria, Mastika, this and that.

 

Hey, the library's always there. Which is another bone of

contention ...of mine. Nahh, forget it.

 

Anyways, it was amazing that despite of all that craziness in high

school. All the debaucheries, the extra-curricular activities (baca

surat tepi tangga la, celup selipar dalam kawah milo, tumbuk

akuarium), I still think high school managed to instil a reading

culture in us.

 

Varsity was a different gorilla altogether. Think of all the constraints

you had when you were in high school. All the things you couldn't

read.

 

The situation is now reversed. In fact, you still have another option

which is equally powerful, but viciously damaging, which is not

reading at all.

 

I knew some who took that option. It took them quite a number of

varsities to finally deduce the fact that one of the essential things

in uni (apart from all the auto functions by your brain) is reading.

 

I don't actually remember the gist of what I read during this hazy

period. I think it's because I didn't read a lot I guess.

 

I can sum it, though. Newspapers.

 

 

A lot of it. In fact, we'd stockpile it in the kitchen so high that when

the time came to actually vacate the premises, we realized

the kitchen sink was missing!

 

That's another crazy reference of time. There's too much, too little

time. But yeah, from then on, I loved reading the newspapers.

When you're unleashed into the working world, you're earning

money. And all that pent-up agression about not being able to

buy stuff (or own stuff) now can be channelled into more productive

behaviour, which is buying stuff and owning stuff.

 

It's strange how it is, when you're young and strapped for cash,

you'd crave all these shits, and when you could actually afford it,

it's not as attractive anymore.

 

Are we doomed to chase the eternal high?

 

 

I discovered, on a routine tax-paying annual thing, that you could

deduct 500 (is it eight?) from your annual if you buy books.

 

Some people would just deduct. I went out and bought books.

 

 

And kept the receipts.

 

 

I later found out that they didn't check all of those things during the

audit.

 

It doesn't really matter so much, though. I figured that whatever it

is that would snowball out of my actions, in some ways there must

be a speck that would bring some good, whenever that might

happen.

 

Okay, books books books.

 

 

First: rockstar autobiographies. I found them interesting because

they encapsulate the lifestyle that you and I can only think about

dreaming of. Well, not all of them actually.

 

When you read Jimi Hendrix's Room Full of Mirrors, you'd get a

sense of how he came to be this larger than life guitar player, this

gentle beast that endured the pain, the hardship, and suddenly

found himself adulated after only a day in England. In the end,

as cliched rock stars did, they got consumed by the drugs they

had consumed.

 

One rockstar didn't die. yet. Anthony Kiedis of the RHCP posse.

When I read his (supposedly) autobiography, I'm sure this man

deserved my 50bucks. His writing could be described as....

well, he writes well. I think he's natural at storytelling, and of course

he's the songwriter, so my comment would be redundant.

 

As far as biographies go, that's about it. Well, I suppose you could

get stuff off Wikipedia, but there's still other ways to go.

 

There's this fiction I read that was quite interesting. It's titled

'The Time-traveller's Wife'. You'd think it's not about the wife of a

time-traveller, but it actually is. And it's still interesting to read.

 

Actually, I was lucky. I read that Sarah Tan of MTV fame read the

book, so I rushed to the store and bought one.

 

Typical.

 

 

P.S. the other reading's a music festival in Reading

that i'd like to attend someday.