Back to the Books: How I began to read again!

Long long ago, when I was a wee one who barely knew anything about the world beyond the four roads that made up her life in Chennai, I leaned on books to explore. What lives that seemed possible to live, what lands there were with experiences to dive into! I was one voracious reader who would forget the cares of the world, drowning my nose in book after book.

I read everything, encouraged by my grandfather’s persistent purchases of anything he could lay his hands upon. So I solved Clerk’s Grade English exam books in parallel to reading Mill on the Floss. I immersed myself in Harry Potter as much as I cried over Uncle Tom’s Cabin, musing over slavery. It was a wonderfully rich life.

Today my shelves groan with an impressive number of books. While I have about a hundred books at Bombay, I possess at least 400 more back home in Chennai — every one of them bought by me or gifted to me by an encouraging friend/family. Every shelf at home that still has my name etched on it is piled with books. In fact, there is really nothing else of my possession left back home. I hoard books — no matter if first or second hand. And while I do read most, many in recent times have not been so lucky.

Something had happened that I still can’t seem to point fingers at and I gave up my habit. Maybe real life caught up with the vicarious one I was living and offered more to indulge in actual terms. The world in my head slowly submerged and the true world expanded with lush possibilities. My reading dropped to 4–5 books a year from the 30+ I once used to read.

Although I still wrote a lot, I felt a hankering that it was not good enough. I was not wrong. My vocabulary- although decent — was becoming boring to me. I needed new words as oars. I sought better analogies, thirsted for newer adjectives and so on. And this year, I picked up a book, again.

Goodreads asked me if I wanted to participate in a book challenge that many of my friends were taking up. I jumped at it. (Thank you Hamsini for the inspiration!)

Brunch Book Challenge later echoed the same goals. I was excited. There seemed to be two motives — to finish a said number of books and pick up my long-lost and much loved habit again.

So, out of the twenty four books I have set out to read, I have finished three. It is not much, considering three months have gone by! But I am happy and picking up speed and involvement at a good pace.

We all forget the joy that simple habits like this used to give us. It is time we learn to remember them and pick those pieces to complete the lack in our present picture. It has been wonderful diving into these books — each a diverse experience. I shall be sharing them on the blog, so watch out!

And even if you have never been into reading and books have always been daunting or only served as weights around your house, give it a try. You never know what world you will immerse into!