Skip to main content

R is for 'Reading'

I guess the first books I remember reading are the Ladybird series of books. But I can’t remember which ones. What I do remember clearly is that my mom joined a library back in the 80s and brought home my first Enid Blyton and my first Archie comic when I was in Class 4. I was hooked to Enid Blytons after that and also added Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drews, Trixie Beldens, Archies, Tintins, Asterix comics to the list. I moved on to the photoromance series before I was even a teen! That’s why childhood seems like such a magical time for me. I inhabited the world of Darrel Rivers and the five find-outers and escaped to the enchanted woods, too, whenever I wanted to.

In my teens, I read a lot of Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Ken Follet, Arthur Hailey, Robin Cook, Michael Crichton etc.  In my twenties and thirties, I read mostly chick lit like Lauren Weisenberger and Candace Bushnell, interspersed with the odd literary classic.



When I turned forty, I started taking my reading more seriously. I joined online book clubs, Whatsapp groups, started a blog on the books I’d read, even received copies for review from some publishers and authors.  I read about 25 books a year and use Goodreads to track them.

These days, I’m thinking of switching to audiobooks because my eyes cannot take any more of the strain. With amazon having some of its audible collection free for a while, it seems like the right time to start.

Reading has been more than my hobby. It has been my way of coping with the world. It has been my way of making sense of things that remain unclear and blurry. It has been my escape and it has been my passion. As Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. And a life without books isn’t either. Books help me examine my life and put things into perspective. Here’s to all the fellow bibliophiles reading this post. Do let me know your current favourite authors in the comments section.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. SuchitaApril 22, 2020 at 7:07 AM

    Reading has always been a solace for me as well and Goodreads a boon to track your reading progress. I too started reading what everyone my age was reading at the time and slowly found my own reading rhythm.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sudha SakleshpurApril 30, 2020 at 10:52 PM

    Reading is my hobby too....but nowadays I am finding it difficult to focus because work takes up so much of time...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How hobbies can enrich one’s life

Everybody needs a hobby. Some people are naturally more predisposed to boredom. These are the creative ones that if encouraged and nurtured can go on to change the world. But before they save the world, they need to save themselves. As the saying goes, no one can pour out of an empty cup. Many artists and creative folk are prone to listlessness and depression. They need hobbies to keep them afloat in choppy seas and help them tide over challenges. Sometimes, they are prone to dark moods and anger, too. The only way to heal is through staying engaged creatively. What will help is to stay amidst verdant surroundings in a peaceful place with few disturbances so that one can delve into one’s artistic self and draw from the wellspring of creativity that lies within. It must be tapped because unless one uses it, one loses it. It’s just like one’s grey cells. It needs regular honing and application. Creative people owe it to themselves, if not to the world, to try to create, even through th...
7 comments
Read more

N is for 'newspaper clipping collection'

People have collected newspaper clippings over the years and stuck them onto their scrapbooks. My dad cuts out a newspaper clipping, of say, a book review, and keeps it inside the book in question. My dad tells me an anecdote of the time he was a student in IIT and one of the boys he met during an inter-university student leader’s conference had a huge collection of newspaper clippings on Kamaraj. The boy had collected news clippings of every news item pertaining to the Tamil political leader and arranged them chronologically in his scrapbook. Others collect pictures of strange UFO sightings, criminal cases covered in the media, favourite cooking recipes, pictures of touristy places and music festivals. I’ve not been in the habit of collecting newspaper clippings, and now with print editions rapidly folding up, it doesn’t seem like a good time to start. I just add sites I want to go through later to my Bookmarks. These days, people do online scrapbooking. I’m plann...
8 comments
Read more

H is for 'Horseriding'

  Yes, this( horseriding) is a hobby, too, albeit for the rich and famous.    Tourists visiting hill stations can go horseback riding with guides leading the way. Children can ride small ponies in beaches, as I have done as a child.  The last time I sat on a pony was when I was about ten years old. At least that’s the last time that comes to mind. Here’s a picture of me with a pony in Kashmir. My parents and I were tourists visiting J&K in the 80s. A simple Google search throws up a list of results for horse riding schools in Chennai alone. Talking of horses, the scene from the movie Godfather comes to mind, when a beloved racehorse Khartoum is found dead and its head severed on the bed as a threat from Marlon Brando’s character. A lot of ‘Westerns’ in Hollywood couldn’t have been made without horses. More recently, the film ‘The War Horse’ was made.   In Indian movies, the heroine on horseback or riding a horsedrawn carriage ( li...
6 comments
Read more