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11-Year-Old Girl Reads 2,200 Books.

There's a cute story in Utusan Malaysia today regarding a certain young girl who has read (drum-roll please) TWO THOUSAND BOOKS! ZOMGWTF!!!

For your convenience, I have run the article through a babelfish (not Altavista's Babelfish, but the actual fish you stick in your ear) and this is what was translated:
by ABDUL RAZAK DIN

IPOH 21 Dec. - Although only 11 years old, Afiqah Ramatullah Khan, has read 2,200 books including novels that are her faithful companions every day.

A Standard 5 student from Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Perempuan Ipoh, she said that the titles of the books she read had been noted down since she was in Standard 1 and this means that the true total of books read by her would be more.

It is routine for her to finish reading one or two books daily, each approximately 70-100 pages long.

According to her, this total does not include light reading, such as religious books, newspapers, magazines or comics for children.

Among books that she likes are story books, fiction, non-fiction, informational books, either Malay or English, jawi or romanised.

"I collected the titles of books that I had read and so far the total is 2,200 books.

"I'm confident that next year the total number of books I will have read will reach 3,500 units," she said after it was announced she was the Reader's Role Model in Perak. She is also fluent in Malay and English.

This success has allowed Afiqah to bring home a RM400 cash prize, a trophy and a certificate. Her school will also receive RM500 worth of book vouchers.

The Reader's Role Model Prize was awarded by the Perak Director of Education, Datuk Ir. Mohammed Zakaria Mohd. Noor.

"Actually, I began my interest in reading since kindergarten as a result of my parents's encouragement and now I have my own library at home," she said.
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Comments

  1. bibliobibuli22/12/06 6:06 pm

    love her! she should become patron saint of all kid readers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous29/12/06 1:50 pm

    Religious books are considered light reading?!?! *faints*

    3rd para of the article is missing something -- the time frame. Does she read one or two books a week? In two weeks? A month? Sloppy editing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ted Mahsun29/12/06 2:19 pm

    Sloppy editing indeed! My bad. It should be one or two books daily. Thanks for pointing out the mistake!

    I think what the article means is she reads Islamic religious books, which can vary from simplistic to downright complex. I'd wager she read the simple ones.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous30/12/06 12:24 am

    Oops didn't mean to criticise. I didn't look at the original article so I thought it had been left out in the original. I might pop by at your book launch tomorrow coz I know Alexandra Wong a.k.a. BunnyWunny, one of whose stories is also included in the book (at least, I assume it's the same book, since it's being launched on the same day!). So might get to see you. Congrats on having two of your stories published. That's awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous30/12/06 12:26 am

    That will teach me not to check facts or click on links. Yes it is the same book! haha. Small world :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ted Mahsun3/1/07 2:59 pm

    Thanks Irene! It was great to have met you there!

    ReplyDelete

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