The book I am reading these days is ‘The Siege: The Attack on the Taj Mumbai’ by Adrian Levy, Cathy Scott-Clark. The ‘these days’ in that sentence doesn’t sit all that well with me. It is not as if I am reading a big fat boring reference book. Still, there you have it. Apart from the fact that I am no longer a speed-reader as I used to be in my younger days, there is this other, rather peculiar thing about my reading habit in the present. While there are days when I am reading during whatever free time I can snatch out of a busy day (preferring to prop up the Kindle against the water jug and read rather than watch TV while having meals), eyes literally bulging in their sockets poring over the words, there are also days that I wouldn’t touch a book much less think about reading, not because the book is uninteresting, but simply because I don’t feel like reading. Strange, huh? Does it happen to any of you?
What a contrast from college days when I just refused to let go of a book until and unless the last page had been turned. But then marriage puts an end to that kind of love for books and reading for many, girls, let me add. At least it did in my case. There was the mother-in-law who felt she *owned* not just me and my *working* hours, but my free time too. I kid you not. I have already mentioned it elsewhere, but will repeat again, one day while I was immersed in a book (so seriously immersed that what she said did not register at first) having finished all work, she decreed that I stop reading right then. “This is not a library!”
I was a people-please-r par excellence, and obedient to a fault (isn’t that how we bring up daughters in our culture, as useless beings?!), enough anyway to shut my book and stare vacantly into space instead. Well, it was her house, and her rules. That is one reason I dislike joint families, the inordinate power the seniors wield over those younger and which power they use without shame, for no reason other than to feed their personal hungers and inadequacies. So who cares if it affects the lives of the younger lot? But I digress.
With the arrival of kids (and thankfully, living in a nuclear family), though reading took a backseat due to sheer lack of time, I found ways to keep alive my love for books. Whenever the baby cried to be breastfed, the first thing I’d walk towards was, no it was not the baby, but the book on the nearby shelf. While the baby guzzled milk, I ‘guzzled’ printed words. Then of course there were the loo visits, where books accompanied me. All I got to read was just one page or two, but I persevered and even finished whole books this way, one/two pages at a time. Some dedication, what?
Everyone (and their great-grandparents) blame the internet, social networks and electronic media for every ill in this world including the (supposedly) dying habit of reading. Not me. I think people who do such blaming are clueless idiots. Yup, that’s my personal opinion, in case you were wondering, and if it feels unkind, so be it. It really and royally pisses me off, this scaremongering. To me it looks like those whose favorite hobby is reading lose sight of the fact that there are many other hobbies in the world, different perhaps, but equally as interesting as reading to those who practice them. Anyways, it is the much maligned social media and the rest that got me back to reading regularly again. Like I said earlier, I am no longer a speed-reader, but read at a more sedate pace, much akin to that of Beach the Butler while he goes about his duties at Blandings Castle.
By the way, my special reading trait is that I always, but always, finish a book (I feel guilty if I don’t) that I have begun, however boring or uninteresting I find it. Have you got any?
©Shail Mohan 2015
OMG, Shail, this is no coincidence that I write about books and reading and I read the same from you. Sigh. Replete!
Believe it or not, I have not read in months, till I picked up my mobile and began to read on the app. Was delighted in fact, and found my speed back up!
You’re so right about the ways in which one manages to read, esp after the kids arrive 😀 😀
Hugs, Shail!!!
Really, i was pleasantly surprised to find your post speaking of books and reading too! 😀 😀 I really commend you on finishing that book on your mobile app! 😮
Hugs right back, Usha 🙂
Actually I finished the trilogy, the entire series on the mobile 😛
This was a nice post about your ramblings about reading. As for me, 2014 was the year I rediscovered my love for reading, and now that the little one is a little older now, I managed to go through quite a few books last year as well. As for me, Kindle, non Kindle paperbacks, e books on the computer, all of them work equally well, as long as the book is engaging enough 🙂
Good for you. Unfortunately, reading on the computer has become a strain for me. 😦 But yes, what’s important is that the book should hold your attention 🙂
Your words about reading becoming less after marriage is true for me too. I didnt have the MIL live with us so the first few years when we didnt have the kids, I read to my fill. Spent my day with books spread out around me. Oh Bliss! I miss it now…Now I have to read like a thief in the night, if I intend reading the whole book in one sitting.
My Day 2 Rambling is here https://mysoultcubed.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/februarys-ramblings-2/
Now I am back to that almost-blissful stage. I still am responsible for answering the door. Sigh 😛 😉
What an interesting series of thoughts about reading! I too always finish a book no matter how boring. I think we need to pick better at the outset. 😛
I adore the month of ramblings idea by the way! 😀
Thank you, Debo. Yeah. But once started, then trudge gamely along (as punishment for choosing the wrong book? 😉 ) 😀
In school and college, I used to read up loads. The librarian at school was such a kind soul and would let me issue a new book every day/second day. I had exhausted most of the illustrated classics and Nancy Drew books 🙂
College introduced ebooks to me, and there has been no looking back. Mother gets very annoyed at my reading habits. I leave everything else to read (or watch something on the laptop 😛 ).
Now with Kindle, it is so much easier..
To borrow from Descartes, ” I read therefore I am”. You are right about the threat to reading…there isn’t…the medium may have changed.
very interesting 🙂 you got me on quite the guilt trip. i think i have not read anything properly for a few years now. it’s as though i cannot read and write in the same phase of my life.
Well in college even I would too could not keep a book down till the last page has been turned..
The habit is gone now it seems.. I do not have the time or energy to read one page each day.. But I must because I miss the joy I used to get after devouring pages after pages in a book…
I was never a speed-reader. Even now I sit on a book for weeks on end to finish it. But I have to say that my reading frequency has definitely gone up higher after marriage than my school and college days. Oh and yes same pinch on the reading trait 😀
“I wouldn’t touch a book much less think about reading, not because the book is uninteresting, but simply because I don’t feel like reading” – this is exactly me!! Even though I am not married yet, even my reading speed has started fluctuating. Sometimes I finish a 300 pages book in 2 days and sometime even a 150 pages book takes me 1 week. And i thought I am the only one with this kind of a behavior….glad to find someone like me 🙂
I can relate to you here very well, Shail. Once upon a time, I too used to read completely unaware of the world around me. Even with the baby I did read. But now the story is different. I have started reading a book a month back. It isn’t a thriller but still I can’t blame it on the book for my lose of interest. But then I can’t return the book until I finish the book. 🙂 Nice to read your ramblings here, Shail. 🙂
Reading about your reading
Whether slowing down or speeding
Put me in a spot
Because i do not
Sigh! Facebook and blogs is where i’m breeding!
Reading gives you power, knowledge and gives you a view of the world, especially when you are stuck in four corners. It give guidance if you are stuck and helps you look at things at different angles especially on social issues. Overall it just gives pure joy. I love to read whenever I get a chance on anything…including your blog!! 😀 Right now I’m reading Game of Thrones after falling in love with the TV show hehe 🙂
Go House Targaryen !! 😀
Oh and btw the way, speaking about daughters being useless beings…I unintentionally got into an argument with one of my parents today about how a “good” girl should be and apparently I’m bad because I am beyond the age limit to get married and have kids. I’m at a tight space in life now and rather resolve that before doing anything else. So now they are going to look for someone NOW and from a very traditional and narrow minded family from India and I’m no where mentally ready at the thought of marriage. (I don’t even know if I want to get married). Top of that,if you go against the views of a very patriarchial society you are a “rebel” as men in India, well according to her, Kerala men, are “modest” as they are above all else and women are entitled to nothing but being a housewife and popping out babies, while everyone else in the world is inferior and we should look down on them.
With a family with such crass thinking and extreme narrow mindedness, I’m doomed
^Hence it’s a good thing I read a lot because I know better than to follow what others think is normal.