From Bedtime Stories to Reading

When i was small, my mum used to read me bedtime stories before I sleep. Just like any other normal kids, I was totally fascinated by the stories about kings and princes, robbers and armies as well as magicians and witches. I still vividly remember myself begging my mum to tell more stories before sleeping, and my mum would say: "Hush dear, let's leave it for tomorrow." followed by a sweet smile.

When I grow older, I read story books with pictures and comics. But because I was deeply attracted by stories they appeared to me that the stories they hold are not satisfying enough. But since I was still small, for me the novels that appeared to hold a lot of words and thick are quite intimidating. It was till I completed my standard three education that I try to read a novel in the holidays under my mum's encouragement. I still remember the book titled: Nobel's life. To my astonishment, I was so absorbed by the book that I can't put it down before i finish it. From just a novel I can get a sight into Nobel's life and the story about how he fights against obstacles in his life before achieving great success that will benefit mankind forever.

Since that day, it was like a whole new world is exposed to me. I learned not to fear books that seems thick or articles with words I can't understand. One thing can be sure when you see such articles is there is new things to be learned, and nothing to fear. For hard words, you can find their meaning in dictionary. What really valuable that we can gain is a new way to think, sometimes an idea that can change your life and perspective, driving you in a whole different direction in your life. And what's more, you get to accumulate every perspective people can possibly have because you can read them off articles or books, thus, granting you the chance to compare and think critically based on the various facts and opinions laid in front of you.

People who read are the people who learn, and only those who are learned can change and innovate. A world's change may start from a single country evolving, and a single country's improvement starts from its people's knowledge and decision, while knowledge and the confidence to decide comes from reading.

"The world is flat" as the title of a book written by Thomas Friedman told us. The main reason of this phenomenon is due to the extensive communication applications used by mankind nowadays. Thanks to that, now we can read anything we want through internet and books are easier to reach every corners of the world. Blessed with these advantages, people who does make full use of the power of communication to extend their reading scope will be painfully limited and falls out of competition.

Sadly, although Malaysia is an evolving country, the reading amount by our citizens are still far behind other countries. Many of our people are still unaware of things happening around the globe that might give us lessons and valuable knowledge. For such people, how can they innovate and improve themselves, let alone helping in our nation's development?

It's true many people nowadays may not share my experience: being told bedtime stories that has drawn me towards the world of reading, but it is necessary to open their eyes wide and open their ears to the happenings around us. We as intelligent humans, must follow the tide of change and innovations or get left behind in the outdated thinking and era.

And most importantly, we will also need to educate our young about what powerful ability reading can provide us. If our young generations read, then they learn. When they learn, they change to become better.

Well, maybe parents should spend some time reading bedtime stories to their kids. =)