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FROM THUMBELINA TO MIDDLESEX
Sunday Star, StarMag, Sept 25, 2005
TYPICAL of a child growing up in the 1960s, Malaysian AIDS Council president Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir’s reading consisted of Enid Blyton fare and classics like Swiss Family Robinson.
It helped that her parents, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, were avid readers and the family home was filled with books.
“My dad used to read to me fairy tales like Thumbelina. I remember they were the original stories by Hans Christian Andersen, not the kiddie versions,” she says.
Marina started reading at five (“That’s what my mum says!”) and she recalls how her parents, while holidaying in Europe, sent back a stack of a children’s magazine called Play Hour, which she devoured.
“I learnt so much from the magazines that I was ahead of what was being taught in school.”
With her daughter Ineza Melanie, Marina chose the Dr Seuss books to get her reading.
“The book that started it for her was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. That’s the beauty of Dr Seuss; the rhymes make them so memorable. She was also a Berenstain Bears fan,” says Marina.
Now that Ineza is 18, mother and daughter share books, happily recommending titles to each other like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones Diary and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Both love visiting bookshops even though the house is already full of books, including many not read.
“I still buy books knowing full well that I don’t know when I’m going to get to them. I dream of being able to go off somewhere and just read and read and read,” she says wistfully.
A book she did manage to read recently was Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex: A Novel.
“It’s told through this girl who turns out to be a boy. That’s why it’s called Middlesex. It’s actually about a transsexual.
“It takes a while for the reader to realise that. Even the character herself takes a long while to realise that. It’s just fascinating; so beautifully written. It’s one of those many-years family sagas. But the thread through it is this child, as she grows up and realises that she is not the sex that she’s meant to be.”
“Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is really very interesting. It explains all of science, but with a real sense of humour. The only thing about it is it’s very Western-oriented. No contributions from the Middle East or China, so that’s a bit of a pity.”
She is currently reading Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, a gift from a friend.
“I’ve been a bit sidetracked because I found a book on Sudoku (the Japanese number puzzle) in Australia. I started doing it and now I’m addicted. So, that’s stopping my reading. But I think it’s good for the brain. At this age you need all the stimulus you can get,” she adds, smiling.
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
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