Tuesday, June 15, 2010

"Books"

"Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay" ~William Styron

The above quote explains why i try to read books. I say try because i am still a novice when it comes to books. I have not read much but i would like to have my own library in future.
It is said that reading Non-fiction is better than Fiction and i disagree because i consider non-fiction boring! But i know Non-Fiction gives you abundant knowledge whereas fiction gives you entertainment( There are exceptions!)

The first book i read was "Secret Seven" by Enid blyton. I read it in my School library, we use to have a class once a week where we use to spend 45 minutes in a large enough library. But good books were scarce hence we use to fight for Enid blyton books like Famous five,secret seven etc
If we dint get any good book we use to sit and chat in library. I was never encouraged to read books not by my teachers or my parents( I dont blame them) Library in school was more of a formality to get CBSE affiliation than to serve the actual purpose.

School did help me in one thing "To hate books" We were made to focus more on the questions which followed the lesson than the actual lesson! No one cared if we understood what the poet or author were trying to say. We only had to know what were the answers to the questions. If you wrote the answers different from the "Prescribed" one's your marks would be cut!

School got over,we entered Pre university college and our Library was two racks! Nothing more than few textbooks of Mathematics,physics and chemistry. For those 2 years we were donkeys trying to grasp the concepts of Integration & Nomenclature. No contact with books. But all this while we had one thing for entertainment "TV" Two letters which have changed the defination of entertainment. My idea of fun was watching "Hum Paanch" on ZEE TV and movies on ZEE Cinema.

Choice or no choice i got into Engineering. We had a beautiful library which was the only asset our college had. Library was filled with numerous technical books of varied concepts. But I never cared reading them and thus again i had no contact with Books.

In the third year of engineering my friend gave me a book which had become very famous "Five point someone" by Chetan bhagat. I loved the book and thus started my love for books. I borrowed some and bought some, but i dint stop reading. From then on i read Jeffrey archer,Dan brown,Sidney sheldon ,John Grisham,Ayn Rand etc All of them fiction!

Few months back i read Fountainhead by Ayn rand. It was a superb book which makes you think a lot and changes your perspective towards life. Then i realized there are many good books which are out there but it was me who was ignorant of those. Now i have started reading more frequently and thoroughly enjoy reading them.

Children should be encouraged to read at a young age. Rather than giving playstations,computers as gifts,books should be given to them. Most of the parents do that but there are many children in our nation who are oblivious when it comes to books.
Our education system makes children hate books,that is something which should stop.
I have given my cousins books as gifts so that they take up the hobby. I feel it is my responsibility to give them something which i got very late "Books"

"A blessed companion is a book, - a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend,... a book that, at a touch, pours its heart into our own" ~Douglas Jerrold

3 comments:

  1. As my fav quote goes: Books are man's best friends. :)

    I have been a bookworm since birth[okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but chalta hai :D], and I definitely agree with you that the present generation is rarely into books. Its too onerous a task for them. They would rather prefer playing video games, and watching silly movies, and I know many people who have not moved beyond Chetan Bhagat.

    Fiction remains my fav category to this day, my most fav authors being Michael Crichton[Jurassic Park, Timeline, etc] and Robert Ludlum[ Bourne series].

    :)

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  2. Thanks for the comment Satwinder! Feels good.
    You surely are a well read person. I am still starting to explore the world of books. Archer is my favorite,I guess E-books will be more famous then books in future! I would still prefer books though!

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  3. I am exhilarated to learn that you read a lot of Enid Blyton's books such as The Famous Five and the Secret Seven as a child. I too read these books as a child, which explainmy writing and publishing a book on Enid Blyton, titled, The Fmaous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.bbotw.com).
    Stephen isabirye

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