I knew I had to do something with myself when I realised that I spent most of my time at home on the bed watching TV. From 7.00 pm to as late as 11.00 pm I am stuck on my bed, looking at the TV screen every weekday. Sometimes even more on weekends! On days when my favourite shows are not on, I stick by the TV like a loyal servant flicking through channels of nothingness until I feel sleepy. Such a waste of time!
After reading through Shinloo’s entry about a book she had just read – The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, I was reminded of a time when I used to be an avid novel reader too. When I was between high school and university, I picked up some serious reading. By serious I meant books with lots of text and no pictures haha! And I remembered how I enjoyed painting the pictures of the stories in my head page by page. I especially enjoyed crime novels by Sidney Sheldon. Soon after starting university though, I stopped reading due to the infamous “I am busy with studies” excuse.
And then by the final year of my university days, Shinloo lent me one of her favourite books, a birthday gift from her friends she said – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It was a page turner and I recalled finishing it within 2-3 days. I still remember much about the story until today.
I haven’t read one single book since.
That was when I knew I must pick up reading again. Replace TV time by reading time. A.S.A.P!
Wasting no time and feeling all enthusiastic, I decided to start right then and there. I switched off the TV, jumped out of bed and marched out to the lounge where I knew there were a collection of novels belonging to Hannah and Murray. I glanced through the titles and decided to pick the thickest one – Desperation by Stephen King and started reading that night. It was a nice read. Not mind-blogging awesome but good nevertheless. Mr. King’s imagination is amazing. In layman’s terms, he has a twisted mind to come up with all these supernatural stories. But hey, I wasn’t complaining. I finished it in 5 days and wanted to read more.
So the next day, I headed down to the public library to borrow another novel. I got the library card since last year and I can’t believe I haven’t used it even once although everything is free! Anyway, I marched into the library without a plan on which book to get. No worry, I told myself. pick any bestseller, it should be good. Do you know almost all books ever published is a #1 bestseller? Shelf by shelf I looked and every book has a #1 bestseller tag on its cover!
Determined to have a book to read on that night, I told myself I have to pick a book. I must! So which book? Stephen King. That was all I could think of. So, I picked up Insomnia and began reading that night. It was yet another supernatural horror story but it wasn’t as fast-paced as Desperation and I got bored after 300 pages. It ends at over 900 pages! I took over a week to finish it (with a few nights in between where I dozed off halfway reading 
) After the last page, I was just glad I managed to finish it. No feeling of “Whoa!” or “That’s so awesome!”
Before my next library visit to return Insomnia and to pick up more books last Saturday, I did some research beforehand. Well of course! I should borrow The White Tiger that Shinloo blogged about! So I went in search of the author name Adiga at the library – none! What a disappointment. Ahh well, let’s pick something else up then. More Stephen King? Nah….two in a row is enough for now. So where to start?
I knew what I like. I like an old-fashioned story. Like flashbacks. Or backstories. Otherwise, I always enjoy crime novels like I enjoyed Castle, The Mentalist or C.S.I. on TV. I picked up – The Lost Diary of Don Juan by Douglas Carlton Abrams simply because it’s a “diary”. An old-fashioned story-telling book. Plus the picture of the author at the back looked really handsome!
Then I scouted somemore at the crime novel section. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Hey isn’t that the movie starring Leornardo DiCaprio? I haven’t read a story in a book and watch it being re-lived in a movie before. Many friends said its a pretty cool experience. Plus I heard a lot of good reviews about the movie. So I grabbed that too. And planned to watch the movie after.
Still a little disappointed that I didn’t get what I was looking for, I decided to look somemore around the library to see what else was interesting before heading home. And there staring at my face was The White Tiger, in large print nonetheless! I took it off the shelf happily and checked out all three books. I finished The White Tiger in 2 days and loved it! It’s very intriguing! Recommended!
Tonight I start reading about Don Juan 
What are you reading now? Any books you think I should read? Please recommend!
