The Bookshelf

I have a hobby. I collect children's picture books. Now, my family is not actually most supportive of this hobby, I believe. Due to the fact that I do not have much space at home to accomodate to my growing number of children's books. Oh well. That is too bad.

This hobby is not that bad.

I have been collecting children's books since I was 17 years old. It started small and grew over the years. I am proud to say that I bought all the books with my own money! :) Hence, this is truly my book collection. I have about 100 books I think. I am not too sure how many there are now. The last time I counted there were 80 books and that was last year. I have bought a few more books this year too.

I buy children's books from everywhere and anywhere. The best place I ever splurged on this hobby was in Boston. OHHHHHH... I was in children's book heaven. The books there were less expensive than the ones in Singapore. And there were more titles! I have an eye for books that represents diversity and ethnic groups. Such books were easily found in Boston. I bought about 50 books in Boston. I shipped them home through United States Postal Service (USPS).

If luggage wieght was not a factor, I would have not stopped purchasing more books. My classmates were worried about my hobby. I had to be stopped and constantly reminded not to purchase anymore books. I think my parents were (and still are) puzzled with my choice of hobby.

Why do I have such a hobby?

 I love storytelling and reading to children. Being in the study of early childhood education, the best way to connect to children is through books and stories. Storytelling is like second nature to me. It is extremely satisfying to be able to storytell. I love children's responses and reactions while listening to stories. I love being able to add drama in the story. And I learned to be more confident too. I find that the books in the library may be limited at times and sometimes I wish to share stories from Africa or China or anywhere in the world. I like that I have such stories from all over the world easy within my reach.

Storytelling led me to writing stories. I guess with experience, I grew to knowing the aspects of a children's picture book storyline. Picture books stories are versatile to me. I feel very comfortable with writing stories. I find a more empowering role as the writer too. I get to bring important messages and learning points across. For example, I wrote a story about a child with autisum. I formed it in such a way that the story would educate the audience; be it adult or children. Having a number of children's books as my resources helps me too. From my writer self, I start seeing the books more critically. I start learning from the books. I start analysing the story. I start to reflect on the possibilities of the story. All within the comforts of my home.

I also like to believe that the books I collect will be evergreen and everlasting. I imagine reading the books I collected to my children and grand children and great grand children, depending on how long my life would be. I have a vision on donating the books away when I pass, after my family generation benefits from the books. It seems cool to start a family thing that goes through the generations.

So this hobby is not too bad. There are benefits to having such a hobby.

Why am I telling you all this?

I am writing all this here because I wish to share the books on my bookshelf to the readers of my blog. Now that you know a certain percentage of history to my hobby. I will be posting under the title, 'The Bookshelf', stuffs about the books I own. I am still coming to a decision on what to share in the post. I will announce it once I am confirmed :) For now, all I can say is, look forward to learning about books from my bookshelf! Who knows, I might start causing you to have such a hobby too.

P.S. The hobby may seem expensive.