Bookworm turned traveller

A picture paints a thousand words. But it takes imagination and curiosity to create a picture from a thousand words.

What are you reading? This is the question my parents still ask me whenever we meet. It is no coincidence that both my wife and I are prolific readers.

From a very young age, I was taught to read for pleasure, not just for schoolwork. To use my imagination, to explore the meanings — pushing the limits of my vocabulary and imagination. It is no surprise that I owned a dictionary from young.

Brightly illustrated books by American children’s author, Richard Scarry are my earliest childhood memory of reading. I was 3. I remember large colourful books of near architectural quality, technical cutaway drawings, detailing the mechanical workings of things like aircraft, ships and cars.

But my real quest for travel is probably thanks to Belgian cartoonist Georges Prosper Remi, better known as Herge and his Adventures Of Tintin comic book series. A young globetrotting, curious journalist, he is always accompanied by Snowy, his canine sidekick.

As a child growing up in Singapore, we would go to a second-hand bookstore in Holland Village. This was long before large bookstore franchises existed and buying books online was but a sci-fi dream. Once read you could exchange it for your next discounted read.

Likewise at my London boarding school. Most of my friends had new books every new term. Book swapping meant you could easily read 20 a term, for free.

During the 1980s I used to visit Foyles bookstore on Charing Cross Road in London. Not to buy books but to look at the atlases and maps of the world on display. You could also people-watch, see who bought which travel books and maps that would take them off to foreign lands. My curiosity for travel was sparked.

Later, as an International Relations student at Madrid University in Spain, I remember El Rastro, an open-air flea market famed for its antiques, old books, magazine and stamps. The exploring and the finding among the eclectic Mediterranean and Maghreb crowd of vendors was the real adventure.

My first experience with a large global bookstore franchise was in the late 1990s, a Borders store in New York’s World Trade Center complex. I visited after work to read newspapers, magazines and books, until 9/11.

Although relatively undamaged when the Twin Towers collapsed, it was later demolished as its structure was weakened due to the incident in 2001. So I went to Manhattan’s East Village, to the Strand bookstore’s “18 miles of books”, as proudly stated in its tagline. The pleasure was in spending an entire morning or afternoon, at weekends, exploring the shelves for large, hardback and discounted travel or underwater life photo books.

Nowadays, if I ask someone what they’re reading, they’ll probably say they only read online articles. A few may read eBooks on their tablet.

Rarely do they have a book in their bag or on their bedside table. Tablets have taken over as the most common reading media, usually to access the latest celebrity gossip or fashion items to buy.

Online search engines have made us lazy. Type in the search term and there is an answer. But what it doesn’t teach you is how to analyse and use that information. It’s there but do you understand what it means? Is it a legitimate source or one with a vested interest?

I often come across search engine Know-It-All individuals. They only read online but cannot remember their sources, often making me question the credibility of their knowledge. They often struggle to string together an interesting sentence, having lost the art of conversation and individual thought.

Reading is a discipline, an exercise. And also a vital fuel for the brain. Set aside time to read regularly — away from the screen — and let your imagination run riot. It should not only be an education but also a pleasure. 

Especially when you finally visit a destination, experience a moment or meet people you have only read about. And it is an even more beautiful experience than you thought possible.

This article originally appeared in my NST travel column - July 10th, 2014