When I was young, I always hated English because that was my weakest subject. It was during Primary 1 when my mum forced me to read Harry Potter, and I sincerely thank her for making me read it (the love for Harry Potter never stopped even though the series ended).
During my secondary school days, I had to study on a specific Classical music composer, and there was a music dictionary providing tonnes of information, but it also came with 1001 bombastic and unnecessary vocabulary that appeared in seven out of ten words. It was definitely ironic trying to understand a dictionary using another dictionary.
Many years after the music dictionary period, a friend recommended me tons of books for leisure, but there was one book which struck me extremely emotionally: Nicole Krauss' "The History of Love". Never had I read such a book described in such simple words and yet so touching for me. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's reads (Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude) were extremely interesting reads to me as well, but nothing struck me as hard as "The History of Love".
Looking back, it was a pretty funny series of events that led my journey to where I am right now - from such arduous hate to something that I can appreciate and actually like, with mum being the little catalyst that brought down the barrier between me and the appreciation of English. Had not for her intervention in my learning, I would probably still hate English, but what's worse would be the forgoing of such fantastic books which have fueled my imagination (and vocabulary from the horrible music dictionaries) and shaping my thoughts and feelings. I strongly believe that the genre of books that you read shapes your perception of the world: it has definitely made me feel optimistic and hopeful for the future, and that was what kept me going on during the hard times. Albeit fictional, we all definitely can learn something from the characters and apply it to ourselves. To end this post, allow me to share a beautiful part of "The History of Love" with you:
“Once upon a time, there was a boy. He lived in a village that no longer exists, in a house that no longer exists, on the edge of a field that no longer exists, where everything was discovered, and everything was possible. A stick could be a sword, a pebble could be a diamond, a tree, a castle. Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in a house across the field, from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a thousand games. She was queen and he was king. In the autumn light her hair shone like a crown. They collected the world in small handfuls, and when the sky grew dark, and they parted with leaves in their hair.
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Signing off,
Lyon
(21/1/16)
