Celebrate International Book Week by picking up a nice, juicy book today. So, what are you planning to read?
I am mad. Like totally insane. When I see a book, I run like a woman possessed to grab it and fondle it in my hands. I smell the pages, finger the covers and hold the book against my chest. And if I do come across an amazing book, I break into book-gasms. As a child with no sibling, books became my first set of friends who never gave up on me. In fact, my first love has not been a classmate or a teacher, but the Irish writer par excellence, Oscar Wilde. I have read and re-read all of his works so many times, I can recite them in sleep and! Such is my love for him and his collection that for a long time I went by the name Vaishnavi Iyer-Wilde. Ha! I am equally crazy about Shakespeare, Anton Chekov, PB Shelly, W B Yeats, The Bronte sisters, George Bernard Shaw, Sylvia Plath, Ruskin Bond and so on and on. And what better day to tell the world about the joys of reading than the ongoing International Book Week?
Anybody who has ever picked up a book would tell you the kind mad rush they got to fly to the climax and find out how the plot played out. Yeah? Did you ever jump straight to the final pages of your Nancy Drews and Famous Fives to solve the ‘Whodunits’ ? Or imagined yourself to be Harry Potter and waited for your confirmation from Hogwarts? Ah, those are the real joys of reading. Losing yourself in a world so fictional that everything you do seems more real and more appealing than it’s ever been. Digging into a juicy novel, debating over a power-packed play or biting nails during a horror reading session, whatever your choice…pick up a book today to celebrate the art of reading.
Despite the availability of Kindle and the like, nothing can ever match up to the sensation of holding a brand new book in your hands. When you lovingly caress the pages because you don’t want crumple them, when you think at least thousand times before lending your books to someone, when you shamelessly steal good books from your friends and stand in unimaginably long queues during book sales…yes, dearies, you are also equally nuts. For books! When you go back home today, make sure to revisit your old books and give them a nice, long read. Don’t let dust gather around them because good books are a legacy to be passed onto to your children. Even if you or your kid loves iPads more than lying on your stomach and grinning while reading, make sure you read at least one book a month. It will transport you to a different world and give you such a massive high that no alcohol or drug in the world can even come close to.
If you’re a voracious reader like me, tell me what you’re reading today. May be we can do a virtual book-swapping session? Shout out to me in the comments section below…
