The National Library, KL

These past two weeks have been really good for bonding with Son No 2. With him as the only one of my sons on holiday, I could plan activities with him in the starring role. I am sure he loved the attention. Likewise for me, I also loved these one-on-one moments.

Yesterday morning, both of us visited the National Library in KL. It was our maiden foray into the local sights and happenings. He wanted to go to the Zoo Negara but I was not up to it as yet. The Zoo Negara is further away in Ampang and after the Singapore Zoo, there is a strong feeling that we are just setting ourselves up for disappointment.

The Perpustakaan Negara along Jalan Tun Razak is located in an eye-catching, stand-alone building. Like many buildings in KL, its design is interesting - creativity in architecture is one aspect that Malaysia can stand tall. The Children's Library is in a separate area and so we did not enter the Main Library.

The Children's Library is better than I expected (I have deliberately lowered my expectations). It is well-stocked with books - but as far as Son No 2 is concerned, they are not the right type of books. After glancing at some books untidily strewn at the low shelves, he was put off because "all the books are in Malay and Chinese". You can see disappointment written all over his face. After some effort, he managed to come across an English book on Leopards and another book on Animals. His faith was somewhat restored. In the end, we read some Chinese story books which we did enjoy.

It is difficult not to compare with our Bishan Children's Library which is like the gold standard. My main grouse is that there is a lack of discipline among the librarians and the library-users to put the books back where they belong. It is near impossible if you want to locate any particular book. Getting hold of a good book is like a treasure hunt. There are English books - I saw a couple of Enid Blyton books - but there are not many of them. The library would have been quite suitable for us, I think, as we do not have enough Chinese books and no Malay books in our house, but it would take some convincing for the children to read these "foreign language" books.

The library was manned by courteous staff who made the effort to speak to me in English. We were the only non-Malays there. So there I was, asking them questions in Malay, and they were replying in English - neither of us totally fluent in our speech but both parties trying to be accommodating! The membership is a token RM1 and members can borrow 3 books up to 3 weeks. But we did not take up the offer as it is probably not worth the effort for us.

It was a short visit. We could see the Twin Towers from the Library building and we could not resist this picture-perfect shot.