My reading life has certainly not become as idle as this blog. I've taken every spare time that I have while traveling, and sometimes even burning the midnight oil just to read. I read so feverishly that albeit it might have been more refreshing for me to take a short nap on the ride, I push that idea aside to make way for more brain waves to absorb and burn whatever book I am currently reading. At times I even get sick of heavy text, yet I continue reading - the light-hearted ones, that is.

During my long weekend in May, which I went to KL with my family, I completed Tangerine by Colin Cheong. Perhaps it was a bad idea to read when I'm going some place else and not Hanoi, not any parts of Vietnam. That book made me want to go to these rural places and see them, see what he wrote. Perhaps that was what made me quite unsatisfied about my overall trip to KL.

Then I sampled other Asian writers such as Catherine Lim. I figure that since I stay here in Singapore, I should see how the locals fare in their writings. I was slightly disappointed by Colin Cheong, but Catherine boosted up the image quite a bit. I like the way she would describe the surroundings in her book 'Following the Wrong God Home' - somewhat lucid and permanent. I realise this:

It is not what you see around you,
but how you create it, in words.

She is very capable of doing just that.

My mom surprises me by taking on an interest in her books, and to date, she has read more of Catherine Lim than myself, who shamefully have not even finished a single one. I even borrow Adeline Yen Mah for my mother to read, the story about the Chinese Cinderella girl. Now she is at home, with no more books to read, and I know not what else would be good and easy for her to read.

There are other books I have yet to comment on, some even before the Tangerine season. Later then.

posted by lil piggie at 10:42 AM