zaid.sg

books & me

In the personal search to define what Good Work is for me, a common question is: what do you like, Zaid?

It’s been phrased in multiple ways:

  • What would you do even if you weren’t paid?
  • If you didn’t need to earn a living, what would you spend your day doing?
  • What do you get so engrossed in doing that you’ll lose track of time?
  • What did you really, really love doing as a child?

These questions have been floating around my mind for long enough that, suddenly, an answer to the last one popped into my head while doing the dishes. So I came here to write it out.

What did I really, really love doing as a child?

The joke answer is crying, because every adult in my life says I cried a lot. (The serious answer behind this joke answer is probably feeling.)

But I also realised I loved, LOVED two things in particular: books and computers.

My nyai (may Allah protect her always) tells the stories of 1) how – despite the previously mentioned nonstop tears for school – I’d always be up for computer class under her block and 2) how I was crying cos I wanted to go to the library…at 10pm. And she had to explain to this boy that it was closed.

So let’s talk books first.

zaid & books

My mak was a school teacher before I was born, particularly an LSE teacher which stood for Learning Support Education. Basically, any kid who came into school not knowing how to read, her job was to help them – and fast, because apparently you can already be behind when you literally start school.

So it makes sense that I learnt how to read pretty young thanks to my mum who wanted me to read in English, Malay, Jawi and Arabic. From toddling around the kids section to checking out comics at the Youth level of Jurong Regional Library, to the shelves of books I had at home, I always had my face in a book. They tried to stop me when we were in a car, or in the dark, or at dinner but in this, I was a rebel.

what did I read?

The nerdiest thing I recall reading is that I literally enjoyed flipping through the Longman Pocket English Dictionary, and another one that was on proverbs idioms (I found it!!). But 7 year old Zaid would have said he loved mysteries:

Just writing these names down sent me down a huge nostalgia trip…my God I miss those days.

(to be continued)

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