Jaslina Yassin gives us a peek into her writing odyssey that led to her very first children's book, 'Tuti and I'.

Reading: gateway to the world out there

Since I was a child, reading has always been my favourite past-time.  It all started when my mother used to read to me every night before bed. I always looked forward to those storytelling moments. It didn’t matter if my mother repeated the same books for a few nights. What mattered was, I had to listen to a story before I went to bed. I enjoyed feeling the colourful pages with my fingertips and reading aloud the best part of every book that my mother read to me each night.  By the time I could read on my own, I was ‘attacking’ bookstores every time we went out.

I grew up with Enid Blyton, Louisa May Alcott, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many more. I couldn’t stop. It didn’t matter that I appeared geeky in front of my friends. Everywhere I went, I had to have a book.  Whenever I was reading a book, I would immerse myself deeply into the story. Reading was like an immediate short getaway for me, except I don’t need an air ticket.

Till today I am an avid reader. I love the knowledge I gain from reading, I love the temporary ‘journeys’ I take with the characters or the authors whenever I get myself lost in the stories I read. However, I have no favourite author because I read anything depending on what I feel like reading at anytime. I read anything from religion to biographies to classic literature.