OF BOOKS AND READING

I have just received my PPAS Certificate of Participation in what was the Largest Outdoor Reading Event in Malaysia held at the Lake Gardens, Shah Alam on 26th June, 2010. It was community program organised by the Selangor State Government and the Selangor Public Library Corporation (PPAS) with the Sultan in attendance and endorsed by the Malaysian Book of Records. Attendance was so overwhelming. While 10,000 was expected, more than 15,000 attended!


I was informed of the event by my Goodreads Malaysia friends who had made it possible for my hubby and I to attend. So there we were with the mat, brolly, sun hat, books, water and my granddaughter in tow! The greatest part was to be able to meet other Goodreads Malaysia members who were able to make it to the event in spite of the late announcement. We even decided that we ought to meet again.

If anything at all my hubby and I share this love of reading. Those who know us would probably vouch that it may be the only thing we have in common. Apart from that we are two very diverse persons! He is even much more of an avid reader than I am. I recall his buying spree of a dead teacher's collection. I could not believe my eyes that his collection actually lined up all the walls of his home in Petaling Jaya. Nevertheless, his son, the beneficiary did not share his passion. I recall some time later when we were moving home my hubby had to send some books back to his mum's house in Segamat, Johore, for the benefit of his other siblings. His mum had to sacrifice a clothes cupboard to store the books in. I am not sure whether the books actually served their purpose. I certainly hope it did as my hubby had used his hard earned money to get them. Today, I see the cupboard  being used for the clothes it was originally intended for. So, I wonder what had happened to the books!!


During a Singapore trip some months ago my hubby saved a whole set (24 volumes) of Encyclopedia Britannica from the dump. The lady owner was all too happy to let him have it for a few Sing Dollars. I suppose, a book lover will simply be broken hearted to see good books being thrown away like that.

Some years back while clearing my grandma's house in Alor Gajah, Malacca, we decided that we would be taking the books, well most of them. To mention a few, we simply fell in love with the Grolier Classics (10 volumes) in its glorious cover, and Grolier's Lands And People (7 volumes).

However, the most priceless to me is the 7 volume Islamic Surveys  covering the following titles:

• Islamic Philosophy and Theology by W Montgomery Watt;
• A History of Islamic Law by N.J. Coulson;
• Counsels in Contemporary Islam by K. Craigg,;
• A History of Islamic Spain byW Montgomery Watt ;
• Islamic Dynasties by C.E. Bosworth; 
• Islamic Political Thought by W Montgomery Watt; and
• An Intellectual History of Islam in India by Aziz Ahmad.

The series was meant to comprise at least 15 volumes to be published at a rate of 3 per year.

I had grown up in that old house gaping at them not really daring to open their covers as I was not old enough to  digest the knowledge within. However, I have never mistaken the blue and white covers. My favourites are #1,2 , 5 and 6. The series were written with such scholarship.


I suppose the rest of the series was not collected by whosoever had begun it . It  must have taken a few more years to complete it and God knows what happened back then.. Recently I found  History of Islamic Sicily  by  Aziz Ahmad  at Amazon.com with the following review:

"Excellent book published by the Edinburgh University Press, such a pity it seems to have fallen out of print. A well structured study beginning with the conquest of Sicily by the Muslims, through their settlement, to their eventual conquest and conversion/expulsion from the island. Also covered in the book is a study of the influence of Islam on Sicilian culture long after Muslims had been expelled from the Island.

An excellent book, short but covers all aspects of  Islamic Sicily well."

The used copies have a price tag ranging from $130.96 - $255.25 depending on the condition of the book. Gosh, it is valuable indeed. There are also the following books but in paperbacks and are therefore much cheaper:

• The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe  by W. Montgomery Watt;
• An Introduction to the Hadith  by John Burton;
• Islamic Names: An Introduction  by Annemarie Schimmel ;
• Islamic Science and Engineering by Donald Routledge Hill; and
• Muslims in Western Europe  by Jørgen S. Nielsen.

I suppose they must now be in my wish list.

My love of reading started in the primary school when each class had it's own little library. I was made librarian whose duty was to put the books out on the table every morning and take note of books borrowed by classmates. Personally, I managed to complete the whole Enid Blyton series of the Five Find-outers And Dog whose titles would be of the format "Mystery Of ........." I would finish a book a day.

Soon I began to rummage through my dad's books. It was brought on by this discussions my parents would have after they had read a novel , one of them I remember being Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence.. So I read it when I was still in primary school.



However, I had found Lobsang Rampa's books more interesting and compelling then. The Third Eye was the first. I remember completing the whole series available at that time. Later, I had also found more of it in the Leyton Library in London. I remember before going to secondary school I have already familiarised myself with, to name a few, Asimov and Leon Uris whose Exodus touched me deeply. Of course I had no notion of the political struggle of the world then and I ended up with having many questions. You may recall that Exodus was also the name of the ship that had tried to bring Jewish settlers to the Middle East. The British had turned it away. Upon it's return to Germany, all the passengers were killed.

When in the secondary school I began to pick up an interest in the classics. That was when among others, I got to know Rebecca - a favourite of mine  till today. Hollywood made a movie of it with director  Alfred Hitchcock  and I had seen it many times over.


I guess we all have our little story of how we got hooked on reading. I figure it was still quite easy for us in those days when there was very little distraction in terms of TV and the internet. Even the cinema was at most a once a month  splurge. So, unless we prefer to die of boredom, we had better pick up a hobby. I picked up two - stamp collecting and reading. 

Updated : 23 rd July, 2010