A gift of Love

Assalamualaikum peeps,

It is my birthday today and since it is our mid-semester break, I am celebrating it at home with my folks and I bake us a decent cake. Well, I talk about the cake in my next post cause now I am focusing on the birthday gift I received from someone even though I should be posting this on yesterday midnight but I was too busy sobbing and catching my breath. Well, it is from somebody that I love. *batting eyelashes*

He did not buy me a diamond ring for my birthday, or an iPhone, but it was more than enough to me. Yes, the subject I am talking about right now, is my one and only Inche Jimmy.
Well, he gave me a bundle of books. Books that I always imagined or planned to have. It was nice, isn't it? Somebody, hell yeah somebody you love and you care noticed the little things about you. I am so touched to receive the gift and I cried after I opened it. You might find this silly, crying over a few pile of books. Not to mention old published books but, whatever, this is me and I like the way I behave. *smug face*

I think maybe it is because I posted about the previous entry before, about "A Girl Who Reads" quote, that a girl who reads would love to receive a book on her birthday and blablablaaaaaa. And maybe, maybe that is why he bought me books! But books which I really really really wanted to have.

Thank you for these babies. Even these might have to wait. I really wish I can actually read them like right now, but I have another commitment. My final year project is my priority now even I was struggling hard with my inner self right now. 

Most importantly, I thank Allah I found you. 

Date A Girl Who Reads

You should date a girl who reads.

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books 

instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she 

has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants 

to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will
always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking
over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out
when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick
sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s
the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when
they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street.
If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on
top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the
author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls
who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through
the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she
understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound
intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday,
for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry
and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her
know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she
knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s
going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will
never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your
need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value,
nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads
up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things
must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That
you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is
meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read
understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the
Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up
at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup
of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours, but she
will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the
book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert.
Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst
and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your
lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will
introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the
same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she
will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your
 boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who
can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her
monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re
better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it,
date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”

― Rosemarie Urquico

For my Malay readers

CINTAILAH PEREMPUAN YANG MEMBACA

(Oleh: Rosemarie Urquico. Terjemahan: Izmil Amri)

Cintailah perempuan yang membaca. Perempuan yang berhabis 
duit untuk buku danbukan baju. Dia punya masalah dengan ruang 
lemari baju, kerana dia punya terlalu banyak buku. Cintailah 
perempuan yang punya senarai buku-untuk-dibaca, perempuan 
yang punya kad perpustakaan sejak dia dua-belas tahun usia.

Carilah perempuan yang membaca. Dialah perempuan yang 
sentiasa menyimpan buku yang belum dibaca dalam tas tangannya. 
Dialah yang meninjau-ninjau di dalam kedai buku dengan penuh 
rasa kasih sayang. Yang menjerit kecil apabila ketemu buku yang 
dicari. Kau lihat gadis aneh yang mencium bau halaman buku lama 
di kedai buku terpakai itu? Itulah dia perempuan yang membaca. 
Dia tidak akan dapat tahan nafsu untuk menghidu halaman buku 
lama, terutamanya yang sudah mulai kuning.

Dialah perempuan yang membaca sambil menunggu di kedai kopi 
hujung jalan sana. Kalau kau lihat cawan kopinya, krimer bukan 
tenusu maseh lagi terapung di atas, dia sudah pun keasyikan. 
Hilang tenggelam dalam dunia bikinan si penulis. Duduklah di 
sebelahnya. Dia mungkin akan menjeling, kerana perempuan 
yang membaca tidak suka diganggu ketika membaca. Tanyalah 
jika dia suka buku yang dibacanya itu.

Belikan dia secawan kopi lagi.

Katakan pada dia apa yang kau fikir tentang Murakami. Lihat sama
ada dia sudah melepasi bab pertama Fellowship. Fahami bahawa
jika dia katakan yang dia faham Ulyssesnya si James Joyce, itu
hanyalah kerana mahu kelihatan cerdik. Tanyakan kalau-kalau
dia suka Alice, atau jika dia mahu menjadi Alice.

Alangkah senang bercinta dengan perempuan yang membaca.
Hadiahkan dia buku pada hari jadinya, pada Hari Natal dan pada
setiap ulangtahun. Hadiahkan padanya hadiah kata-kata, dalam
puisi, dalam lagu. Berikan dia Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings.
Biar dia mengerti bahawa kau memahami yang kata-kata itu adalah
cinta. Fahamilah yang dia sememangnya tahu beza antara dunia
buku dan realiti, walau dia bersungguh juga mahu bikin hidupnya
seakan buku yang paling dia suka. Bukan salah kau kalaupun dia
mencuba begitu.

Apa cara pun, dia mesti akan perlu mencuba juga.

Berbohonglah padanya. Jika dia memahami sintaks, dia akan
faham keperluan kau untuk berbohong. Di balik kata-kata ada
perkara-perkara lain: motivasi, nilai, nuansa, dialog. Tidak akan
kiamat lagi dunia, kalau kau bohong padanya.

Kecewakan dia dengan kegagalan. Kerana perempuan yang
membaca tahu bahawa kegagalan selalunya membawa kepada
klimaks jalan cerita. Kerana perempuan yang membaca faham
bahawa tidak semua perkara berakhir begitu sahaja. Masih boleh
ditulis sekuelnya. Masih boleh mula semula, lagi dan lagi, dan
masih boleh jadi hero. Dia faham bahawa dalam hidup, mesti ada
satu dua watak jahat.

Kenapa takutkan segala yang bukan kau? Perempuan yang membaca
memahami bahawa manusia, sama juga seperti watak dalam buku, berkembang.
Kecuali dalam siri Twilight.

Kalau kau ketemu perempuan yang membaca, janganlah dibiar
pergi jauh. Bila kau ketemu dia di tengah malam jam dua pagi
sedang memeluk buku ke dadanya dan menangis, buatkanlah dia
secawan teh dan peluk dia rapat-rapat. Kau mungkin kehilangan
dia untuk seketika, tetapi dia tetap akan kembali pada kau.
Dia akan berbicara seolah watak di dalam buku itu hidup, kerana
untuk satu ketika, watak-watak itu benar-benar hidup.

Kau akan melamarnya di atas belon udara panas. Atau ketika
konsert rock. Atau secara bersahaja bila dia jatuh sakit.
Atau melalui Skype.

Kau akan tersenyum sampai telinga dan tertanya-tanya kenapa
jantung kau masih belum meletup keluar dari rongga dada.
Kau akan menulis kisah hidup kau berdua, punya anak-anak dengan
nama pelik-pelik dan selera yang bukan-bukan. Dia akan perkenalkan
anak kau kepada Cat in the Hat dan Aslan, barangkali pada hari yang
sama. Kau akan berjalan di musim salji bersamanya bila sudah
berusia nanti, dan dia akan bacakan Keats dengan nada lembut
sambil kau ketis salji dari kasut.

Cintailah perempuan yang membaca kerana kau berhak. Kau berhak
untuk dapat seorang perempuan yang boleh memberi kau kehidupan
penuh warna. Kalau kau hanya sugul, membosankan
dan tidak serius, adalah lebih baik kau bersendirian.
Kalau kau mahukan dunia, dan
dunia-dunia di sebaliknya,
cintailah perempuan yang membaca.

Atau lebih baik, cintailah perempuan yang menulis.