Sharon's Reading Biography

My love for reading developed when I was a child. I could still remember my primary school days, when my mother would bring me to the library to borrow books in the attempt to motivate me to read a wide range of texts. Of course, this was something that I really looked forward to because, I could borrow from a huge selection available there. I think when I was in primary school, I read a lot of "Sweet Valley High" books (Haha!). These books were just fun to read and at that time, I did not know how to close read a piece of text. However, I believe it was an entire collection of "Sweet Valley High" novels that developed my interest in reading.

I really enjoyed reading the books written by Roald Dahl, such as "Matilda", "The BFG" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Roald Dahl's style of writing really kept me captivated, and I could remember the times where I would stay in my room the entire day just to finish reading his book. I simply could not wait till the next day to find out how the story would end. Those were the days I would fondly remember...

When I entered secondary school, I was introduced to the subject English Literature. My secondary 1 Literature text was Roald Dahl's novel, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". One could imagine the excitement I had upon knowing that I would be studying this text for Literature! I really loved Literature way back in secondary school, as I was glad to have the opportunity to read and explore different kinds of text. However, most of my classmates back then did not enjoy Literature and therefore, very few students actually chose to study Literature in upper secondary. As a result, my school did not offer Literature in upper secondary school, which was really quite upsetting.

My love for Literature redeveloped when I decided to major in English Literature during university. This was a decision I had never regretted as I truely enjoyed my university days. During my university days, I was introduced to Singapore Literature, Southeast Asian Literature, African Literature, American Literature, British Literature, Victorian Literature, Contemporary Literature and the list goes on... I also learnt a whole new lot of theories which were really interesting though at times, they were pretty difficult to comprehend. I think during my university days, I read even more books than I had previously read from my primary school days all the way till junior college (Hehe).

Personally during my time in NTU, I liked the works of Singaporean writers such as Suchen Christine Lim's "Ricebowl" and Kuo Pao Kun's plays, such as "The Coffin is too Big for the Hole" and "No Parking on Odd Days". Kuo's plays were really interesting to me, and allowed me to reflect and think about Singapore's bureaucracy. I also enjoyed reading Mulk Raj Anand's "Untouchable", which talked about the caste system in India. Some other novels that I particularly liked were William Shakespeare's "King Lear", Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations", Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio" and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road". The lectures and seminars conducted by my professors were really engaging and I had fun exploring the texts recommended by them.

Literature is a subject which allows me to grow and understand myself better. Literature introduces me to new worlds of experiences. Through the study of Literature, I can interpret the author's message and discover new meanings. I believe the study of English Literature is important to all of us because it speaks to us, it is universal and it affects every single one of us.