R E A D

When I was growing up, my late mother was the educator in our family. She would sit next to me and make sure I finish all my school work. She was like a hungry lioness who just waiting the right moment to eat you up...! Sorry mummy...I am a mummy myself now and I do the same to my children, your grandchildren. I wish you could meet them, mummy, they are pretty smart and have their own colorful characters.

Any way, I wasn't an avid reader those days. But I enjoyed reading magazines though, I guess its the pictures what attracted me the most. I could not exactly recalled when I pick up reading but I think while conceiving Shakira.

Somehow I do believe your actions while you are pregnant does influence your fetus. Why I said that is I believe that Shakira's loves for reading was implanted in her because I love reading when I was pregnant with her.

Since my work place shifted to Shah Alam, the company provided pick up van to transport their workers from a few pick up points. I spent at least an hour on the van and ended up taking a nap which was not productive. So I spent the traveling time by reading. I enjoyed reading autobiographies and non fiction. I finished at least 2 books in one week. Then one day, on the radio, I heard Phoolan Devi, India's Bandit Queen was shot dead in front of her house. Such a coincidence, cause I was reading her unauthorized biography that day!

While Shakira was growing up, we instill in her the joy of reading. Just imagine every year we declare more than RM500 on books purchased for tax rebate to the Income Tax Department. Shakira likes reading especially magazines; Tinkle bell, Princess, Asuh, Ana Muslim....she would read cover to cover and complete the quizzes included.

Once I could finish 3 Virginia Andrews in a week – The Dollanganger and The Casteel series. I read on Mahatma Gandhi, Madonna, Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and etc....

The last book I finished was Ning by an Indonesian writer. Currently I am alternately reading Doctor in the House and Lagenda Budak Setan. It is going pretty slow since I have other priorities.

But my all time favorites are The Promise by Danielle Steel and Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. Read it and you will know why. When Hollywood turn the book into a movie, Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep fit perfectly the part of Richard Kincaid and Francesca Johnson. They brought the story out alive. I re-read the book so many times and each time I will cry leading to page 122-125.

The Bridges of Madison County is a 1992 best-selling novel by Robert James Waller which tells the story of a married but lonely Italian woman, living in 1960s Madison County, Iowa, who engages in an affair with a National Geographic photographer from Bellingham, Washington who is visiting Madison County in order to create a photographic essay on the covered bridges in the area. The novel is presented as a novelization of a true story, but it is in fact entirely fiction. However, the author has stated in an interview that there are strong similarities between the main character and himself. The novel is one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century, with 50 million copies sold worldwide. It was originally published in the UK under the title Love in Black and White. The Bridges of Madison County was made into a 1995 film of the same name, adapted by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood and Meryl Streep.-credit to Wikipedia.

The promise tells us about a young architect Michael Hillyard and artist Nancy  McAllister are determined to get married despite  his wealthy mother's disapproval. Then, minutes  before their wedding, a terrifying accident and a  cruel deception separate Michael and Nancy --  perhaps forever. Each pursues a new life -- Nancy in  California, Michael in New York. But eventually  nothing -- and no one -- can keep them apart as  they keep their vow never to say good-bye. - credit to Random House.