This is about books.
Well, not books exactly but my reading style, book preference, bookstore choice... blah blah blah...
u'll see...
I have half a mind to start with the ONE line that
i've seen
soo many people start their debates with.....
" The oxford dictionary defines books as.... "
and I hate it when someone says that.... I mean, where's the innovation?? why does everyone say the same stuff?
Anyhow..... I've always liked reading... ever since I can remember.... although, its been on and off kinda..... as a kid, I used to love comic books.... my mom even got our newspaper
waala to deliver the new releases of each week at home. So yea... lots of comic books..... I grew a little and started feasting on the short stories.. Enid
Blyton and stuff ...The most memorable part was when I would get my English literature books at the start of a new academic year ...I'd read the entire thing in a couple of days! ...
siiiigh... how I love the smell of newly printed books... its so... Inviting.
I have no other words for it....
I'd loved issuing books from the school library.... NO, I never read the hardy brothers or any such crap... I was more into Dr. Doolittle , classics and the likes.... I'd come home... not study the entire day... just read. Occasionally my Dad asked me why I wasn't doing coursework, and left after I didn't come up with a good enough answer. "Dad, I like this. Schoolbooks are boring. " .... "Dad, he just found a chair with wings... I need to know the next part!" ..... and so on...
Then came the Harry Potter era. I think I was in the 9
th when the first one released.... suddenly, all everyone was talking about involved this book rising in popularity charts... Newsflashes depicting incidences of overcrowded bookshops (Nope, India TV wasn't there yet, The phrase 'Breaking News' wasn't used for everything.) were on TV .And so I got my hands on the first HP book... and I absolutely loved it !!!
You know, I noticed something lately...
Blogs have this awesome quality ....making the author seem larger than life.... whatever the topic of writing. Seriously..... think about it....
I admit that I'm not as voracious a reader as I'd like to be. But that's just me ( refer to the blog title if ure too thick !).... I sometimes don't get my hands on a book for months at a stretch if the situations are such. Last month , on the other hand, I read 3 different ones...
The white tiger ( the man booker...why??), Shalimar the clown and A fine balance ( WOW !)... I travelled a lot that time, actually... so I read a lot too ! One of my favourite places to read in is the window seat on a train . Its just so comfy, reading while everything rushes past.... Thats for another day, though ......
I sometimes daydream about having an incredibly well furnished reading room with a La-Z-boy and a huge book shelf. Other times the room gets converted into a gaming zone with a PS 3, a pool table, a foozball table and a pinball machine... the La-Z-boy stays put though ;)
About Bookshops... which one's your favourite? If ure in delhi... Om book shop maybe? Oxford? I have a preference here too.... See, even though I love the sight of so many books, the humongous bookstores don't really appeal to me. What do, though, are small, cozy bookshops.... You know, the ones in corners ( no, not the porno collection... jeez .. !) ... those that you would've missed probably while walking past.... those that don't necessarily send pamphlets about sales to ur doorsteps..
I was in a city called Jalandhar last month when I came across a similar bookshop. I wouldn't really have noticed it if my cousin hadn't pointed it out... " hey, u like to read na... check that out."
The first thing that struck me was the sign board displaying the name. "Readers' Paradise" .... I smiled looking at the apostrophe at the correct location, after the "s" in "readers"..... "Finally! " I said to myself.. "A signboard with correct grammar!"
I went in and noticed piles of books on the sides.... immediately the smell hit me with that same nostalgia of settling down with a paperback ( I never could take to reading ebooks... uuggghh ) .... There was a middle aged guy sitting behind the counter , reading something.... I looked around a little and noticed he didnt have any trashy stuff... just good, readable ones..... I had been hearing about this author called 'Rohinton Mistry' for a while, and wanted to get one of his works.... so I asked the counter guy about him and he had 2 of the guy's books. I chose one.... in the meantime I was chitchatting with the guy... turns out he was actually the owner of the shop.... said he never wanted to have a large bookshop, just a good one like this... quality over quantity kinda thing....
Oh n yea.... funny thing... every 2 minutes, someone would walk in asking for a box of pencils, a packet of A4 sheets, pens etc etc...... After refusing the 5th person to ask him, he said to me .."you know, there's a sign behind the counter that says NO STATIONARY....I thought people read...."
