why i read
When I realized that my entire college education was to exhale mathematics under my breath, I realized that I need to read like badly. This was my way of preserving my sanity. That instant I understood why Mr. Ryan said to me, when summer break was just beginning and we were just having a class year-end party, to "Read a book". He was probably rambling, I giggled like a fool that time. It flew over my head honestly.
I began my reading journey around this month last year with The Other Name by Jon Fosse. Looking back, it really was an unusual book choice to start my journey. I quite remember opening the very first page; Truly I digged the synopsis but there weren't any period anywhere in the book (no I am not joking) and there's the repetitive "I think", "He says", and "She says" part of stream of consciousness, I was feeling regret. But I forged my way through the book and ended up feeling rewarded. Sorry I don't think 'rewarded' isn't quite exact. "Rejuvenated" if that's better. (I read the second part at 1 am if that helped)
Reading Fosse's work, in many ways, was fitting for me. I didn't know novels could be written like that or that the sheer power it could instill on me. Anyways, I read many books after that whose stylistic conventions fortunately aren't as annoying as Fosse's. I read mostly classics since I mostly read off Kindle. Some physical copies I bought when I got dough. Some I took from my sister's shelf (she was more than happy to lend)
Worthy of mention since I enjoyed them:1
- Kusamakura, Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
- House of the Dead by Dostoevsky (One of the few I've read from him so far)
- 1984 by Orwell
- Symposium by Plato
- Sound of a Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
- Lelaki Harimau2 by Eka Kurniawan
- Metamorphosis by Kafka
- Swann's Way overture by Proust (no I haven't completed it but the Overture is fire)
Just recently, I finished reading Catcher in the Rye. I couldn't help but notice the sheer coincidence The Other Name and the book sharing the same setting, leading up to Christmas, as if any of it has any ecclesiastical meaning. Anyways, Catcher in the Rye made me glad that I begun reading in the first place. Such is the effect on me.
I can't pinpoint exactly to you the effects that reading has brought on me. Certainly it has made me calmer of a person. Academic-wise it made me less scared opening up the textbook. So far as the journey has been going, I haven't regretted anything yet. With all this in mind, part of me thinks reading many books ain't all'at.