My-Ngoc

Books and reading have always been the consolations of my life. I love books. I like looking at them, smelling them, touching them, feeling them, and reading them.

When I was young, my family was very poor. We did not have money to buy food so buying books was out of the question. Even if we had money, we could not buy books we liked because most reading materials were prohibited by the government. When I was eight years old, I accidentally came upon a translated version of Wuthering Heights that was secretly circulated among my sisters. I had no understanding of the content of the book. I was amazed to see how words could be beautifully crafted together on printed pages. So each night, when my sisters placed the book in the rice pot (the hidden place for books), I took it out and read it word by word under the blanket next to the oil lamp. The pages were torn and crumpled, and as I mulled over them I realized there existed another world that was very different from mine.

Now that I am surrounded by books, and able to access them at the bookstores, libraries, or at my fingertips, I feel very blessed. But not all people are fortunate as I am. There are people in many corners of the world that do not have access to books. There are people who are too hungry to pick up a book; there people who struggle to work for the next meal and become too tired to read; there are people who want to read but cannot read. For them I write this blog. And for me, as a reminder that life has given me great gifts: books and reading!