Books

• Last Updated: September 18. 2009 9:34PM UAE / September 18. 2009 5:34PM GMT

Charney Magri / ArabianEye

Michael Seet, 46, is the merchandising manager at the Kinokuniya Book Store in Dubai Mall.

I was lucky that my father instilled in me a reading habit when I was young. One of my earliest memories is of him reading to me. He used to buy me books. I think the first one I read was an Enid Blyton.

At school in Singapore, my favourite book was The Count Of Monte Cristo. It was like a Boy’s Own thing; someone being wronged having the perseverance to come through, the triumph of good over evil.

In my teens I read To Kill A Mockingbird. Well, actually, I saw the movie first, but the book is one that I have continued to re-read throughout my life and I always enjoy enormously. I loved everything about it; the whole father-and-daughter thing, the genteel southern atmosphere, the southern gentleman.

One of my all-time favourite books is The Godfather by Mario Puzo. It is a cracking read and the themes of loyalty and family are so compelling. You can almost read it like a “how to” book. How to run a family like a business and how to win over your opponents.

Now I probably read more non-fiction than fiction. At the moment I am reading a book called The Miracle: The Epic Story Of Asia’s Quest For Wealth, about how Asia overcame its economic difficulties with a special focus on south-east Asian countries.

Another non-fiction book I really rate is Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. He encapsulates the way small things can trigger dramatic and sometimes drastic events. It is a concept he describes beautifully.

Reading allows me to travel without moving and allows me to learn about many things that I would never know about. It is a way of seeing the world.

I am quite a sports fan and recently read the former Manchester United and England captain Bobby Charlton’s autobiography. He is such an outstanding figure; I mean how many people survive an air crash and then go on to lift the World Cup?

Reading has not only given me a lot of pleasure but a livelihood, too, and for that I am grateful. This livelihood also led to my getting married. I was working in a bookshop in Indonesia when I met my wife. She was the best friend of the accountant.

I think you need a certain passion for books to work in the industry. I just read whatever catches my fancy; it could be an author that I follow or a subject matter that interests me. Here we are such a big store that we have to stock as many books as we possibly can, the big sellers being the obvious ones. But I get a lot of job satisfaction when a book I have bought that isn’t an obvious seller goes on to do well in the store – when I have taken a risk on a book and it has worked out.

I have never thought about writing a book; it would be too tedious and no one would be interested in what I have to say.

As told to Helena Frith Powell