mama's Treasure Trove

Ah Ma told mama once that when mama was a tiny 1yo, they put mama in front of many things to see what would mama choose. According to old tales, the item that the baby chooses can tell her future. So it went by that Ah Ma said mama went for first a book, and then ang-ku :) Well mama don't know about the origin of the old tales (it should be obvious that babies will always grab what atracts them) but mama has grown to show a great love of books and ang-ku :)

When in school up to the first degree, mama used to haunt the campus libraries until mama was quite famous with the librarians. Mama still remembers when in USM for mama's first degree, one of the librarians even got to know mama's then-favorite author (Walberg and oh was he an amusing witty story-teller of the policemen, and he used to be one himself) and he used to save the author's books for mama and would call mama to the counter when mama burst through the doors! (Ah Ma and Kong2 must be aghast if they find this out... imagine forking out mama's tuition fees never a day late and to find now mama chasing after novels instead of text books in the libraries! No wonder mama is taking such a long time to finish school!)

Well then mama did not have much space to stock up on mama's favorite reading materials (novels, non-fictions, travelogues), and much less budget. Now though mama (and papa) has turned our little 3rd room into a cosy little library. Not surprisingly papa stocks up with his boooooooring text books and all those magazines and books with serious titles (blah). Mama on the other hand... (wink wink) is stocking up with all that mama's started collecting. Used to be from Novel House (Pg & Ipoh) and then now mostly from MPH, Borders... and a couple of times from amazon.com.

..oh mama's taste is not consistent, though mama is hopeless when it comes to adventure, mischief, the unexplainable, horror, humor, humorous travelogues, humorous self-defacing-but-wonderful life experience... and those witty-opinionated-honest-to-God books (ok so that's pretty much everything that qualifies on the novel stands).

...there is Stephen King (or used to be for mama, outgrown his work). Mama pretty much grew up with Hardy Boys (Nancy Drew's adventures too tame). And slightly before that was glued to Enid Blyton's. Especially her Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair tales!! Mama's shelves have the honor of Amy Tan, James Harriot and Conn Igulden with a whif or two of the esteemed Michael Crichton and John Grisham. Among those that stood out is A Thousand Splendid Sun by Khaled Hosseini that mama chewed endlessly on during a lazy trip to Hong Kong. And the motivating brave tale of Greg Mortenson building his schools in Pakistan in Three Cups of Tea. The ones that mama holds very dear at heart (and made mama's eyes all swollen up in the morning)... Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom), Marley & Me (John Grogan)... and the magical A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time by Diana and Michael Preston (and coincidentally mama read it just a month before mama's unplanned biz trip to India! So imagine! Mama was virtually walking through the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, the Red Fort with the ghosts from the book so close by that the hair at the back of mama's neck almost got a stroke from sticking out if not for mama's trip being - (un)fortunately - short). And the ones that made mama cackled crazily at 3am: Peeing in the Bush (Adeline Loh), Upcountry (Graham McEune)... Do Bats Have Bollocks (Butler & Vincent)... and mama's still best friend in times when mama should be medicated - Growing up in Trengganu by Awang Goneng and Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai.

Note: Clive Cussler is another adventure author that mama loves to grab if mama has only 2 days and zero emotional-gravity to read, but sadly mama cannot line him up here now as mama has - and is guilty of - not stocking up with his books.

So you see why mama is still studying? :)