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Monday 30 July 2012

In books I found a friend


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“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” 
 - C.S Lewis

Well said. I can never have enough of books. When I buy one I am already thinking of the next one I will read.
There are days which are rather horrible. One sits in their little corner, thinking about the future, commitments or lack thereof, responsibilities and abundance of the same, and then one takes a casual glance at the open pages of a book lying at the side of the bed, inviting to take one to a place where anything is possible. Each new book is like the Land of Narnia. One can imagine a state of mind, read accordingly and be transported from the mundane to land where anything is possible.

I’ve been going through a phase of philosophy and psychology ( my constant interest that is), and I can see how my approach to a situation changes with each new thing I learn and sort of store in my subconscious. It is such a pleasant surprise to approach a common situation as Freud stated and hitting the issue bang on! Bravo, I say to myself.

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” 
 - Harper Lee ( To kill a Mockingbird)

There have been times when other miserable things have taken preference in my life and I could not read for weeks at a stretch. It almost felt like I had lost a friend, a sense of purpose so to speak. Words have such power to transform and move, its almost tangibly scintillating. Words in Fitzegerald’s “The Great Gatsby” paint a clear mental picture in my mind of what the Island of New York is like in the spring. The most fascinating thing about this classic is its simplicity. The complexity or the straight forwardness of the words don’t really determine the superiority of the literature, its more to do with how the words are used and in what context. I regret not having read this book earlier. Well, better late than never.

J.D Salinger was right when he said that once one reads a book that moves and makes one think things one wouldn't normally think of, one would want to sit down with the author and ask him how did he manage such exquisite penmanship which years after it was written is still relevant and fascinating.

It can be months at a stretch before I watch TV, and to be honest I don’t believe I am missing much. Not much to lean from movies with people dancing around trees or the scandals of tinsel town now is there?

Reading a good book not only helps one to achieve conversational ability but also helps to open ones mind and attitude to change and culture. It requires patience. I do believe one who loves to read will be a good listener as well, because aren’t we really listening to the author when reading and indulging him in his fancy till the last page?

“A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.” 
 -Lemony Snickett 

So I cannot help but wistfully look forward to a day when I will have my little sanctum sanctorum in a reading room, which I would love to smell of old books, freshly brewed coffee and the soft content sigh of my soul at ease while I leaf through pages of old friends. Ah, bliss.....

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