Hi Friends,
I still remember I always used of dreaming to take membership of private library in my city in India where there were a lot of comic books though I used to read a lot of books from the school library as well as a library of a university where my Uncle was a Professor. My parents never stopped us from annual memberships of various magazines throughout our school and college days with Competition Success Review being one of the magazines which really helped me improve my General Knowledge. By virtue of reading that monthly magazine, I have won a lot of GK based contests in person as well as online. Another one which I remember reading a lot is India Today (weekly), Reader's Digest and some of the other Hindi magazines for kids like Motu Patlu, Champak and Suman Saurabh. Later after I started earning my own money, I invested in Outlook Money (monthly) magazine over the years. But it's my habit to always leave a lot of the part unread whereas that problem I don't face with the books and I really love reading non-fiction as well as Self-help books and business books. I always used to propose books to buy to the various libraries I have visited which used to be on my wishlist or favourites during various years of my life.
I started reading Fiction only for Amish (The Shiva Trilogy) series in particular and later I read all his novels and Ashwin Sanghi's as well as other Indian and International Authors like Dan Brown. I always used to pre-book their written books including Rhonda Byrne even before the launch and I have had the pleasure of meeting Amish Tripathi in person at one of the Westland Books events in Delhi and similarly Chetan Bhagat at one of the Blackberry Sharp Nights events in Mumbai. Even during my MBA and Engineering courses, I have read a lot of books (Business, Management, Productivity and Non-fiction) on a weekly basis other than the course books picking each and every one of them from the library shelves choosing which one I want to spend time with for a week. I even have a Chicken Soup for the Soul book autographed by Jack Canfield when he visited India thought I could not meet him in person. I did review a lot of books for BlogAdda in their Book Review campaign on my blog.
Last few years since 2013, I was only reading less than 5-6 books per year since I came to South Africa and a part of me was always feeling that constant pain of not reading the books. Though I had the Kindle Keyboard and iPad available with me, reading consistency has been an issue for me as well as identifying which book to read. Also, I subscribed to Getaway magazine in South Africa for many years in a row but initially there used to be delivery related problems of the physical copy but later they sorted it out with advance SMS and other tracking details. One magazine I subscribed to never reached me not even a single copy and all the money was lost so was the confidence in the delivery methods used by the publishers in South Africa. They never returned the money nor sent the copies. What a shame! In India, I remember I used to start a book on Friday evening and will continuously read it through till Sunday night till it finishes. Reading is something from which I can easily say that I derive my thinking process and it has helped me through the ups and downs of life. Books Festivals, Book Fairs has been my first to go points whenever it used to happen in New Delhi and I love those stalls as they used to give an unlimited amount of books from thousands of publishers on display to see, touch and buy if you like them at some discount.
Being confused about which book to read is due to the digital mediums which people, blogs, critics keep on praising and criticizing a lot of books whereas when I used to pick up books from the library, it was generally my unbiased choice from the cover and preface etc (look and feel) of the book. The actual copy when I used to pick from the books store also will require a kind of decision to spend your money on. People who love books are still glued to the paperbacks or buying books at stores due to this fact only that it gives me power and commitment to finish the same. A small part of life in terms of time spent on the book is measured and remembered forever and that's what makes it unique and that feeling doesn't come with the digital editions of the book. I re-read a lot of books during the lockdown to better understand them as I last read them some 10-20 years ago when my mind was not as experienced as now and it really gave me a new perspective to learn from the same book again. You shall always mark some books for re-reading on a frequent basis.
A small incident I remember was when my wife was travelling after marriage to meet me from Mumbai to Delhi via a flight, the guy sitting next to her finished his book and gave it to her as she showed interest to reading the same and the book was called 3 Mistakes of my Life by Chetan Bhagat who gained fame from 5 Point Somone earlier. You should definitely check out movies on both the books named 3 Idiots and Kai Po Che. Another incident was when I applied for The World Book Day (pre-listed 25 titles) in London in 2011 and got selected to distribute one of my favourite books (received around 100 copies of the same) to random people in my office, on the streets of London and to the various libraries. Last year in Feb 2020 when I went to India, I donated all the physical books I bought over the years to our Building Society library (pocket or block or street) so that other people can enjoy the same too.
Going back to my childhood I used to always ask my parents to buy me comics but it was way too expensive for them but whenever I used to visit my cousins who got a collection of comics available at their home, I used to ask them to give them all so that I can start reading them immediately and my whole dinner, breakfast and lunch used to be with comics most of the time till I finish all the stories before leaving them during my school holidays or whatever be the occasion of the visit. I used to hire comic books on rent which used to be very little as compared to buying the whole comics and then exchanging with various friends so that we could read more for less money. My father always supported us with the magazine subscriptions as compared to reading comics or buying comics though the price of annual subscriptions used to be way higher for the 12 copies received in a year. I think he had the intelligence that comics won't serve a purpose whereas magazines like Competition Success Review will always be a better friend in the long run even if his kids finish 10% of it every month.
I don't see that kind of eagerness in my kids to read comics or magazines as I have not shown them the world of Motu Patlu, Champak, Super Commando Dhruv, Chacha Chaudhary etc which my father showed me. The reading content changed over my growing years and I am sure that I need to introduce my kids to the books which can help them grow into independent decision-makers, to stick to their value systems despite all criticism, to gain knowledge of the outside world, to face difficulties virtually before facing it in the real world and always have a winning attitude. I felt that the right books have imbibed me with some of the great habits and thinking patterns that can be considered as the best of the best. I feel comfortable in my own skin all the time. I could connect the dots even before the famous speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford and it all has come due to the various books, magazines, articles I have read over the years from all the libraries around the globe. Thank You So much to the magical world of Books, Magazines and Libraries!
Cheers!!!
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