Love is.....

I love reading. Books. Good books. Whenever ada pertanyaan pasal hobby, my first prioriy mesti Reading. Reading books. Reading books is my passion. I think I should thank my parents sebab they all lah yang nurture the habit to me. Since primary school lagi aku & Along dah ada koleksi buku. Time tu we all kemaruk baca buku-buku Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton's and also buku-buku Kisah Nabi yang Abah suka beli.

Bila masuk MRSM, aku dah start baca Mills & Boon. Tukar-tukar dengan kawan sehostel. Masa buat A-Level kat KDU, the passion grew stronger. One thing bcoz we all ada duit scholarship, so many-many books boleh beli. Bukan saja Mills & Boon but also bestseller English novels by famous authors. Then masuk ITM M*****, hostel pulak dekat dengan Kedai Buku Thai Kuang. Sometimes, I just bought a book, but still, whenever tak beli I just borrow from the library. At that time I was surprised sebab library ITM M***** ada buku-buku Danielle Steele, my favourite author.

By then, my collection of books siap susun-susun dalam big book's cabinet kat rumah Mak & Abah.

However, the best books-buying time of my life came after graduated from ITM. Dapat MARA scholarship to further study ke W****** Michigan U. That was THE time of my life actually. Books are so cheap kat US. I spend most of my wages (kerja as kitchen assistant) on books and also travelling all over USA.

Bila dah mula kerja, now & then aku beli jugak buku whenever aku ada masa. Bila dah ada kids ni agak sukar nak find time to belek-belek MY kind of books kat bookstore sebab sibuk melayan the kids cari THEIR kind of books pulak.

By now, my collection of books dah no longer dalam book's cabinet, but dalam ntah berapa buah kotak pelbagai saiz. Still kat rumah Mak & Abah. (Aku masih duduk dgn parents eventhough dah kawin) Some of the boxes ada kat bawah katil aku. Some of it pulak dalam bilik store.

Aku dah slow reading books actually. Satu, sebab dah jarang-jarang membeli. Dua, sebab couldn't find time. Kat ofis aku sibuk, kat rumah aku sibuk ngan Hubby & the kids.

Somehow, keterujaan utk membaca buku kembali tiba baru-baru ni bila Noor & Ratna cerita yang they all berjurai air mata bila baca buku The Notebook & A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks. The books then were passed to Mas who did not berjurai air mata reading it but she likes it nonetheless.

During our lunch date last 2 weeks, they insisited on me pulak to read the 2 books. Seminggu aku perap buku-buku tu, langsung tak pegang. Then one day, after one solat maghrib, A Walk To Remember kind of terjatuh dari my dressing table where I have kept it. I picked it up then selak-selak a few pages.

Sudahnya, that satu malam aku marathon habih kan reading that book. I guess old habit dies hard. Semalam, aku habih pulak baca The Notebook. And I remember that I have seen Message in A Bottle movie yang Kevin Costner main dulu. Message in A Bottle movie actually was adapted from Message in A Bottle book written by Nicholas Sparks.

Nicholas Sparks bagus sekali. I like his writing. Buku-buku dia semua pasal first love. Jenis-jenis yang tak boleh lupa eventhough dah bertahun-tahun. It reminds me of MY first love. Not with my Hubby actually but with Z***** when we were at KDU. Sampai ke hari ni pun I still remember him. We dated for 2 years then broke up. Sejak berpisah, aku tak pernah jumpa dia lagi. Don't know where he is now but I heard that he's already married with children.

I'm not saying that I don't love my Hubby. I love him dearly, I felt in love with him masa sama-sama kat US dulu. He is my true love. My other half. Tapi there's still a place in my mind di mana tersimpannya memory masa first love dulu. Memories that make me smile, then realize that without the first love I wouldn't know how to give the best love to my Hubby now. Love is beautiful. So wonderful. I feel blessed.

That was what Nicholas Sparks's books did to me.