SINGAPORE - When Professor Kirpal Singh was in Primary 5, his form teacher wrote some advice in his autograph book that remains etched in his mind to this day.

"Never ignore books. Read as widely as you can, for books can give you knowledge which can never be stolen because it is stored in your head."

For more than 45 years, Prof Singh - the director for educational leadership in Training Vision Institute, a government-approved private educational institution - collected an estimated 25,000 books from different places, such as California in the United States, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

A poet and literary critic, Prof Singh has written several collections of poetry and non-fiction books, and has also edited literary works. He was also the director of the Wee Kim Wee Centre at the Singapore Management University from 2008 to 2017.

On Thursday (July 1), Prof Singh spoke of his plans to donate 3,000 books from his collection to various charities, universities and libraries, to promote the love of reading.

These books include a first-edition copy of A Passage To India by E.M. Forster, an early edition of Sons And Lovers by D.H. Lawrence and The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Prof Singh said he plans to e-mail various charities and libraries, such as the National Library and Children's Charities Association of Singapore, about his plans by the end of next year.

The Sunday Times visited Mr Singh at a warehouse in Kaki Bukit where he keeps nearly 23,000 books, packed in more than 100 brown boxes.

As an avid reader who also collects books for pleasure, Prof Singh lamented: "I think my species is dying… In all my talks and lectures, I always encourage the love of reading."

He feels that younger-generation Singaporeans are being forced to read in school. But most of them later lose the reading habit.

He believes that without general reading, Singaporeans cannot be good conversationalists outside of their immediate personal interests.

He also said that reading less will result in a poorer vocabulary and command of words. This, in turn, will lead to a decreased capability in negotiations.

According to Prof Singh, many are sadly not appreciating the multi-layered meanings and significance found in repeated readings of books.

He attributes the dip in popularity of reading books to how fewer people find a need to read for pleasure.

He said: "We live in a very functional world where language has become very functional. It is no longer for pleasure. Now we read books mainly for utility. We read books, like textbooks and workbooks... to pass examinations."

Singapore has seen an impoverishment in the use of English over the years, he said.

According to Prof Singh, while many are able to use words in a literal sense, only a few know how to use them in creative and figurative ways.

He said: "The whole fascination of language is experimenting, using words in different ways, therefore expanding and enlarging their meanings, hoping that one day, this expansion will become part of the ordinary."

Hoping to enhance creativity, clarity of thinking and openness to playing around with words, Prof Singh wants his books to be given to people who have a genuine love for reading.

He said: "I hope that readers will make full use of their creative imagination to think of how they can use the knowledge derived from the books, to create new relationships and opportunities."