Personal Reading History -2

‘Time, like a fistful of sand, slips through our fingers while we stand and wonder what to do with it.’

A habit is must for proper utilization of the time during our growing years. I had a nice habit of book and comics reading from the childhood days. I have already written a brief about reading history in a previous post (Personal Reading History -1). In retrospection, it feels great that I have read so many books, comics, stories and poems.

I want to read with the growing age the best of all world literature. It varies with the short stories of Anton Chekhov, Guy De Maupassant, Somerset Maugham, Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and O Henry. UP, CBSE and ICSE board short stories and in English and Hindi from class 5th to 12th were fondly read by me. Smriti by Sriram Sharma, Gift of the Magi by O Henry, The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde, Idgaah by Premchand and A Letter to God by Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes (Translated by Donald A. Yates) are still mine favorite stories.

Books Read at friend's place: Panchatantra, Sindbad the Sailor, Pinocchio, My experiments with Truth, Gulliver Travels, Chandrakanta Santati and Prisoner of Zenda.

Books read in School Library: Moby Dick, Three Musketeers, The count of Monte-Cristo, A Christmas Carol, Time Machine, The War of Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Thirty Nine Steps, Oliver Twist, Great Expectation, You can win by Shiv Khera, Frankenstein, The Red badge of courage, King Arthur and Round Tale, Sunny Days, Malgudi Days, Plays of Shakespeare

Books Read in Hindi Translation: David Copperfield, Ivanhoe, The Man in Iron Mask, Black Beauty, Call of the Wild, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Black Tulip, Alice in Wonderland, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Talisman, Don Quixote, Robin hood, Around the world in eighty days, Coral Island, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

These books were a treasure house of enjoyable and informative literature that I read in my wonder years. Sometimes, it was the encouragement of my parents and cousins that later turned into my own initiative. Thanks also to my sister, who competed with me to finish a book as quickly as possible. Later on, the reading habit faded due to my own negligence beyond Class 10.

I never seek happiness, as those who run only after happiness never truly find it. On the surface, when life becomes “eat, drink, be merry,” it is superficial, and one day everybody gets bored sooner or later. Some seek refuge in religion and others in work. It is extremely important to choose advisors, mentors, friends, and role models who are concerned about our intellectual growth and not just our productivity. Productivity is like that of a machine, but thinking operates at different levels. We can only choose the best ideas by becoming morally serious and intellectually curious.

I like books and write rather outdated essays on my blog. I have always aspired to become an educated reader who understands the world around me. Currently, I mostly appreciate reading non-fiction books. Simultaneously, I introduce popular concepts and ideas that focus on the problems and prospects of sustainable development on this blog in a lucid manner. I indeed feel like a custodian of the common heritage of the civilized world through this cultural tradition of reading and writing.

As a grown person, it seems beyond understanding that scholars have stopped just reading novels and poems and have started studying them. That is the tragedy of literature. Most of my friends and classmates lack the habit of reading books for pleasure. Only a few have started reading beyond schoolbooks; others simply prefer to watch TV and use the internet. They watch TV, so their attention span is low—perhaps because people don’t read books these days.

Reading is tough and requires patience. It requires application to grasp the meaning of words and find the hidden emotions between the lines. I act as a writer on this blog. It is a demanding, difficult, and not very reader-friendly—highly personal—space, typically filled with short insights. But if you have arrived here for… a light-hearted entertainment on your mind, then this blog is a wrong location in blogosphere.

As a writer, I have begun to doubt my own capacity to see things unbiased, when I no longer am sure if my view is right or left. Yet, I am trying to remain as independent as possible. I suspect that market forces have altered the behavior of writers. That bothers me a lot. I will easily pass away, unnoticed and unremarked with time. Just let me read and write without censure story of my own. I thank books as they had changed exposure and outlook. A nation must have its culture rebels, prophets, saints, heroes and martyrs. I am none but a Reader and Writer.