Literature winner read only 3 novels in 2 years

Nicholas Liu is baaaaack in his new buttermilk blog (but we miss his NS stories from his metastatis days), and he wonders how an Angus Ross prize winner could have gotten by with reading just three novels in the last two years (the three novels were all Dan Brown some more).

Maybe some people is Literature genius leh? Me, I had to read many books and copy famous people's styles then can. Pian chiak pian chiak one. But then, I never win any Angus fellow's prize.

Excerpt:

"What's important about Literature is being able to appreciate the text for what it is, and to have the genuine passion to sit down and apply the skills we've been taught," said the 18-year-old, who attended Crescent Girls' Secondary and Radin Mas Primary.

Seldom have I seen two phrases as unequally yoked as 'genuine passion' and 'sit down and apply the skills we've been taught'. Then again, maybe I'm inappropriately old-fashioned for my age—my definition of what it means to have 'genuine passion' for literature would include, well, reading it.