My father was working in ABEGS (Arab Bureau of Education for The Gulf States), and when there were additional copies in the bureau, he comes back home carrying a box full of educational books for us to read. So this is how I started reading, I was 8 years old at that time, and I still have those little books in my cabinet back home, they remind me of these beautiful days when I have nothing to worry about and all I was thinking about is which book to pick from that brown big box.

As I grew up and became a teenager, I used to read romantic some of Ahlam Mosteghanemi novels in Arabic. In college, we worked on a novel by the French author Honoré de Balzac (Eugénie Grandet), we read it and analyzed it. It was for me the real start because it was a great novel by a very famous and talented author in French which is my second language.

Now, I like to read Marcel Khalife and Nizar Qabbani poetry in my free time. They are amazing and touch my heart in each time I read them. Also, I’m taking, for this fall semester, a “Shakespeare text and performance” course and I’m reading and interpreting his plays for the first time.

I sometimes go to the university library or to a book store and I enjoy both, in Saudi Arabia we have Jarir, it is a huge book store with so many sections and some chairs and tables for the public (kids and grownups) to read.

I have a problem with concentration, when I’m reading, I got distracted by everything and it keeps away from staying focused for a long time. However, I do not have a technique to stay focused but I force myself to read even though it takes me really long time to finish my work.