Reading

I was looking at my old posts and saw that I had written a few book reviews and all the reviews here were about kids’ books. Back then, I spent more time reading books to my kids rather than reading books myself. Before having kids, I was an avid reader. I loved reading and I guess I got it from my parents. Both of them enjoy books. When I was young, even my uncles encouraged reading. My first ever memory of going to the library was with my uncle. He used to take me to the Ramakrishna mutt in Hyderabad. He used to go for meditation I think, and before going there, he used to leave me in the small children’s library they had. It was a small room with a few small tables and chairs and a few books neatly organized on the shelves.

We used to go on a Sunday evening. I loved reading there because it used to be quiet and no one talked. The few other kids there used to just sit and read. It really was pin drop silence and I enjoyed quite a bit of it. We also used to get the Chandama book every month. We used to get both the Telugu and the English versions. I loved reading both and I used to fight with my uncles for those books. If they laid hands on those books before me, I didn’t have an option but to wait until they were done reading. My uncle introduced me to the Astrix books as well.

When I was in college, I had to struggle to stay away from books. Once I start reading a book, I have a very hard time putting it down. But, when ever I had some free time, I used to indulge in reading. Reading with a cup of tea or coffee is one of the best things in life! Even to this day when I pick up a good book, I have a hard time putting it down and I have successfully passed it down to my kids. I am happy and sad about this though. There are times when I have to forcefully take their books away so that they will do other things. If I leave them alone, both my boys are content with reading. Although, my older one now a teenager has replaced his books with his phone, he has read a bunch of books over the summer break.

He spent a few nights laying in bed and reading. I used to go to bed and he used tell me he wants to read for a while. I let him. That is one part of being a kid and enjoying the break. My younger one is always glued to a book – physical one or something on the computer. I have a hard time getting him to do anything else. Sigh!! Talk about too much of a good thing…

In the past few years, I have barely read any books at all. I would love to say I don’t have the time, but I think I should say I didn’t make the time to read books. Earlier this year my parents came to visit us and I asked my mom to bring a few Telugu novels. One of them was Meena which I have read it a few times already. But, it has been a long time and I didn’t remember much about it. When I started reading it, I was lost in the book and that bought back memories. I finished the two book series in under a week. Granted, I took advantage of my mom cooking and spent a bit too much time reading, but it just felt so good. I decided that I am going to get back in the habit of reading. But, the biggest problem now is that I don’t know what I want to read. Earlier in my college days, I had a list of books I wanted to read, but none of them appeal to me now.

Maybe I’m growing up or maybe it’s something else. I really do need to find what I want to read more of. Hopefully, as I read them I can blog about it and that’ll give me the enthusiasm to keep going.