Personal Taste : A Book I love, And One I didn’t— 30 Days Writing Challenge

When someone asked me about my favorite book, it takes time to answer because it makes me think about how my favorite book would vary depend on my age, I guess.

I remember when I was little, I was crazy about magazines. They’re full of joy, interesting stories and colors. I was always curious and interested in all kind of magazines, even when I was 5 years old I ever tried once to read my Dad’s Playboy magazine but it turns out so disgusting for me hahaha. My favorite magazine was Bobo because it taught me to literate and to be creative, but as time goes by, Bobo is forgotten and I’m no longer read them since in elementary school.

Since then I’m more interested in science encyclopaedia, probably because my mom accustomed me to only read textbooks (and wanted me to be an engineer ever since). But to be honest I’m still interested in magazine even until right now, although it’s a fashion magazine and the funny fact is I ever dreamt to be a Chief of Editor for Vouge Magazine LOL.

During middle school I start to read fiction books and it was the first time I read an english book; Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. I still remember that I used to borrow the book from PitiMoss Library hahaha. It soon became my favorite, though in the end I wasn’t able to finish all of the Harry Potter series and tend to finish the story by watching the movies. After that, I prefer to read romance fiction and my favorite is all of Nicholas Sparks’ and John Green’s books.

From high school until now, generally I read a non-fiction books, most likely self-help books and poetry. I’m so into them because reading self-help or poetry books made me feel to be found after a lifetime lost and open up mind mind to see the world from other perspective.

The list of my favorite self-help books are Steal Like and Artist by Austin Kleon; 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey; The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson and Start With Why by Simon Sinek. While for poetry books I’ll categorise them based on the authors. My favorite poetry books authors are: Lang Leav as the author of Love and Missadventure, Lullabies, Memories, The Universe of Us, etc; Nikita Gill as the author of Your Soul Is a River, Your Heart Is The Sea, The Girl and The Goddess, etc; Lala Bohang as the author of Books of Forbidden Feelings, and Rupi Kaur as the author of Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers.

I like the way the deliver what they feel on their poetry and how I could feel them. Here is an excerpt of a speech made by the character John Keating in the film Dead Poets Society:

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

One book that stood out the most is Lullabies by Lang Leav. It’s my first poetry book and turns out to be a book that taught me everything, not only about love but also about finding myself, and the essence of life itself. I can’t spoil too much, you better read it too. I began to fall in love with poetry since I read this book. For me, poetry is entirely human just like the other art. It is carving your emotions, your life, your story into something so very raw, and yet so very beautiful. But in poetry each word is placed precisely in the place it should be like pieces of a puzzle, not everyone could sump it up but everyone could feel it. Wordsworth described poetry like this: “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in moments of tranquillity”. One of the best poems I found on the book is :

Tsunamis

Be careful about giving your heart to quickly, I was told.

Boys only have one thing on their minds, they cautioned.

I don’t know if he truly loves me- how can I be sure? I can’t say with any conviction that he won’t break my heart- but how could I have stopped him from taking what was already his?

He swept in like a tsunami, wave after wave, and I didn’t stand a chance. All those warnings, all the things they tried to prepare me for- lost in an instant- to the enormity of what I felt.

Ok, about the book that I hate? Oh I’ve got plenty of my textbooks that I don’t recommend to read for you unless you’ve got sleeping problem hehe.

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