Making Books Interesting Again:
How to Get People of All Ages to Read Books?
BOOK REVIEWS
You Are The Apple Of My Eyes
Late in the summer of 1994, Ko Jin-Teng was a mischievous guy, therefore his teacher placed him a seat in front of the model student, Shen Chia-Yi. Ever since , Ko and his close friends fell for Shen and he started studying and was being more attentive in class. After graduation, they still remained friends despite Shen loses her heart to Ko. Ko used to pursue her but she hesitated back then. Shen Chia-Yi was the reason of the striving of Ko Jin-Teng, because Ko loves her dreadfully no matter what. It is the climax of the book. Then, they fall out due to a duke out competition organized by Ko, thence they rarely talk to each other until the day Shen told him she was getting married. Ko realized everything has changed and all he could do was wish the best for her. Eventually, they both led different life path in the pursuit of happiness. You Are the Apple of My Eye is Taiwanese fictional book written by Giddens Ko, it became the most influential and popular fictional book in Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, it was later made into a film
I love the way Giddens wrote this book.He was able to express his idea through words very well.The story started off very lively and ended with a sad scene.He really took control of the reader's emotion. This book is simple yet an excellent story about first love with a regretful ending. The adults said not to fall in love throughout their school days, but they didn’t know the power of love could make a stubborn child to strive for good academic result although with particular intention. If they said we are too young to understand love, then I will say they are too old to understand us. I believe love mostly exists during our youth, the bittersweet of the story warmed my heart and I have been reading it over and over again for pleasure.
Lastly, here comes a quote of the author “Adolescence is like a heavy rain. Even though you catch a cold from it, you still look forward to experiencing it once again” (Giddens K., 2007)
Book reviewed by: Chak Tze Xin
The Time Keeper
I was urged to read this ever-famous, inspiring book called The Time Keeper (2013) just a year ago. The title did not interest me even a single bit at the very beginning. However, the back cover of the book stole my undivided attention and made me sat down to read. Just because it was that mesmerizing. The story talks about an inventor who is known as Father Time - a man who challenged God with the gift of time and was banished in a cave for many years. But he was given a chance to save two lives in this world in order to save his own. He had to teach them a lesson on appreciating the value of time.
The story of this book had a hidden meaning; which was to make aware of time's value. The author has presented it well and laid out his meaningful idea on a beautiful piece of script. He has succeeded in winning a reader's heart to yearn for more. Every single chapter portrayed a lesson which would benefit our thoughts. The writer used two different people to show us from different perspectives. One was to live forever, and another's wish was to welcome death immediately. The contrast made the novel captivating and also by the way which Father Time handled them. The author made Father Time a wise yet arrogant man to help these people. The strategies used captured my heart very deeply.
Mitch Albom will never fail to impress readers' minds. His story challenges us in our daily lives. This book has transformed the value of time into something more magical. The author made it lively and relatable. When
Source: http://www.mhsmustangnews.com/2013/03/13/the-time-keeper-by-mitch-albom-review/#!prettyPhoto/0/
somebody reads this book, he or she would definitely want to be a part of this story too. It is time. It is time to start appreciating time. And one of it is to start reading this masterpiece from Mitch Albom because it is assured to make your time worthy.
Book reviewed by: Low Nyin Qing (Amanda)
Escape From Camp 14
I still remember buying this book. It was so random and I don’t really read this type of book. It gave an impression of an autobiography, but it’s much more than that. The fact that it was very detailed on the whole journey, was a bonus and got me more into it as I read on.
I definitely entered a whole new world when I read this book. The book was titled Escape from Camp 14, a young-man’s journey to freedom. Shin Dong-Hyuk was born into captivity. During the 1950’s, Shin’s uncle successfully fled to South Korea and because of that his father was a political prisoner. According to state law, if a family member tries to escape or defect, everyone else in that family will be punished, even if they knew nothing about it.
Shin spent his childhood days in the prison camp, he knew nothing of the outside world. He did not even know that China existed. He was only taught basic reading and math and nothing else of the world. Shin went through his childhood constantly hungry because there was never much food, and he was always prepared to snitch on another prisoner.
A few years later and Shin was already a teenager, he overheard a conversation between two prisoners talking about the real world where people get to eat good food. Ever since that day, he began to imagine what it would be like to escape the camp. After several weeks of planning, he was able to escape through the electrified prison fence and eventually found his way to China. After that, a journalist helped him get to South Korea, where he went through rehabilitation and counseling, and finally he moved to the United States.
Shin's story is an amazing one,when I read this book I thought I knew
what freedom was but I was wrong. The true definition of freedom could be best explained through this book. It was what Shin Dong-Hyuk, a man who was unlucky to be born in Camp 14, was searching for. I would recommend everyone to read this book for those who wants an insight into North Korea and how the state uses propaganda, fear, beatings and a caste system to try and control its citizens.
Book reviewed by : Nur Aina Abdul Hadi
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: CABIN FEVER
Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (2011), is the first ever storybook which I have read, of course not including the fairytale storybooks which I have read when I was younger. Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (2011) is basically a satirical realistic fiction novel that is written by Jeff Kinney. It is the 6th book of the Diary of A Wimpy Kid book series. This book is basically a diary of an American middle school boy named Gregory Heffley (Greg) talking about the issues regarding the arrival of Christmas.
This book was first recommended by my cousin and I was then attracted to the interesting contents of Greg's diary. First of all, the pictures that come with the book has helped me a lot in picturing the situations happening in Greg's diary. As I get distracted easily by something more amusing than words, I shall say that the pictures in the book have strongly caught my attention, helping me with my distractions. Also, the way the author projects the story makes it fun and entertaining to read when bored. I read this book during my year end break back in 2011, and it is definitely a great way to kill time when bored. It is also recommended to be read when pressurized because the funny contents will help the readers to lighten up the mood.
The interesting experiences Greg has had according to his diary, has urged to do something interesting with my life too. During the long term break, it has inspired me a lot on what to do to own an interesting holiday. As all Diary of A Wimpy Kid series are labelled as children's book, the words that are used in this book are slightly more straightforward compared to any other storybooks,
understanding what the book was trying to describe and elucidate was definitely a piece of cake. Though the words used are simple, it has somehow helped me in a lot in picking up with new words, as most words are recognisable, hence making the not recognizble words to stand out, causing me to be more curious of its definition. As a consequence, regarding the many benefits that comes with this book, I would definitely highly recommend this book to my friends.
Book reviewed by: Hazel Ng Rae Nee
Strategies to get Malaysian to read more books
Reading is an activity that incorporates a lot of benefits, especially to the students. For example, it improves the mental stimulation and strengthens the analytical thinking skills of a reader by requiring the readers to analyse the information they have read and triggering the readers into figuring out the mystery of a mystery book before finishing it. Though the average number of books Malaysian read annually are gradually increasing every year, but unfortunately it is still not enough to enhance the abilities of the nation. The country still requires activities and strategies that should be implemented to get Malaysians to read more books and to improve the reading habits of Malaysians. Below are some examples of the strategies.
1. Cutting down book prices
Big Bad Wolf Book Fair in Segamat, Johor.
One of the most effective way is by making books more affordable. Book fairs should be carried out more often especially in small-towns where most students are not able to afford the original price of a book. This will also increase the tendency of people especially parents wanting to buy books for their children.
In this picture, it is shown that many people in Segamat, Johor have attended the Big Bad Wolf Book Fair, causing the event to become a huge success. Trough this, it is proven that the main reason why Malaysian students from small-towns like Segamat, Johor are not able to obtain a proper education is because they lack the opportunity and affordability. "The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is a good
platform for students to buy as many books as desired without burning a hole in their pockets." (Kamini R.S., 2014) has made it official that the price of the book is one of the reasons to low number of readers.
2. Parents making time for their child
Parents are individuals who play a significant role in a child's life. It is crucial that the parents pay attention to their actions as whatever they do may highly affect their child's future. For instance, parents have to put in effort to develop the reading habits of their child from a young age by spending time reading with their children. This will help to form a great impression upon reading in a child's memory. In addition,it wouldn't be a problem whenever the child is required to read a book in the future. Parents should also take their child out to the library more frequently to seek for the books which are suitable for their children. This will further set the child's perspective on reading in a positive way.
Source: http://momrecommends.about.com
3. Improve attractiveness of book covers
The fact that I am not a frequent reader, I tend to pay more attention to book covers rather than reading the content of the book. Though the idiom "don't judge a book by its cover" has been said, many people still tend to do so, because human beings are more sensitive to what they see. If the content of the book is good, make sure the cover will catch people's attention in a glance Other than that, having special editions of books also tend to attract readers which will lead to a higher possiblity of people buying those books. Hence, improving the reading habits of Malaysians.
4. Increase number of bookstores in the country
The main excuse most parents give for not bringing their child out to buy books is that book stores are located very far away from their home. Therefore, by increasing the number of bookstores, parents are expected to stop giving excuses on not bringing their children out to buy books which will improve the development of reading habits within children. Also, with an increase in the number of book stores, it will be harder for people to ignore the existance of it, leading more people to enter it, hence buying books from the store which will also tend to improve the reading habits of Malaysians.
5. Encouraging young authors
Kiera Cass
It is shown that young adults tend to read more books compared to adults. Therefore, encouraging young authors will be a good method to improve the reading habits of Malaysians because young authors are able to relate and understand better on how most young adults feel due to the close age gap. Writing a book regarding their observations will gain better attention and help them receive positive feedback. It is because young adults will then find themselves interested in the topic which the young author has written.
Young authors will also give hope to the young adults or even teenagers who also dream to become an author. It will inspire them to work hard for their dream. To become an author, frequent reading is required. Therefore, improving the reading habits of Malaysians.
6. Making reading a compulsory subject in high school
Just like how it is compulsory for students to learn maths, reading should be the same as well. Students will not automatically read unless they are acquired to, just like mathematics. And just like maths, there will eventually be people who find themselves liking the subject and some people finding themselves to hate it. Only through this method, students will be able to gain interest in reading hence leading more average number of books read per year.
In conclusion, the activities and strategies that should be implemented to get Malaysians to read more books and to improve the reading habits of Malaysians includes cutting down book prices, parents developing reading habits of their child, improving the attractiveness of book covers, increasing the number of bookstores in the country, encouraging young authors and making reading a compulsory subject in school. As reading consists of a lot of benefits, with an increase in the number of books read per year, the country will definitely be benefited in some way.
END
Writer: Hazel Ng Rae Nee
Researchers: Chak Tze Xin and Low Nyin Qing (Amanda)
Editor: Nur Aina Abdul Hadi