READER: Selena Tan, 36, actress
Best known as part of the cabaret comic trio, the Dim Sum Dollies.

She has been acting since she was 14, and is a familiar face on television. She received the Asian Television Award for Best Actress In A Comedy Series two years in a row (2004 and 2005) for her role in Daddy's Girls.

Her one-woman show, One Singular Sensation, ran at the Esplanade Recital Studio last week.

What are you reading now?

I just finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It's a memoir about the years she spent growing up in a dysfunctional American family.

Her father is a well-read electrician who cannot hold down a job. He is also a dreamer who tells his family he's going to build them a glass castle, a house that would run itself using energy from the sun.

Her mother, on the other hand, fancies herself an artist but can never sell anything.

This book reminds me of the artistic people who aren't so concerned about the rat race. Here, they aren't equipped to deal with real-world responsibility at all, so I'm afraid I don't see myself in them.

If your house were burning down, which book would you save?

I'd save my childhood copy of Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree.

It's about a group of kids who stumble upon this really old tree inhabited by mystical creatures.

My cousin gave this book to me. We lived in a housing estate with a park at the back, and we imagined we'd find something like the magic faraway tree one day.

The Glass Castle ($17.10) is available at Borders. The Magic Faraway Tree ($19.30) is available at Books Kinokuniya. Prices include GST.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Mar 30, 2008.