Or maybe this essay should be titled how I don’t. At least not the way I used to, eyes glued to the page. What a funny thing to say. It’s funnier to think of it literally, as though if I nodded off, I’d wake up with a book for a face. Anyway, that’s how we read once, with gluey concentration. Reading was so sensory back then. For the eyes, the white surface, the black text, sometimes the colour from pictures. For the ears, the rustle of paper, if it was thick paper, or else the silky swish as you turned the page. For the nose, the smell of gum, binding – brand new books are the bibliophile’s answer to brand new babies, with their scent of talcum powder and wonder. There was even something for the mouth, though I was not one of those who licked a finger before turning a page. I had other ways of tasting the words.
Today, I touch the words. I touch them through devices I can slip into my jeans. I am in communion with the author, Adam’s index finger reaching out to God’s. The rustle of pages is gone, there’s only His silence. There’s nothing that tells the ear I am done with this page, I am moving to the next. I no longer have to raise my neck to get from the bottom of this page to the top of the next. The head remains bowed, supplication. Or else, in bed, I gaze at the brightly lit words like I’d gaze at stars. Words are stars, if you think about it – great clusters, great constellations of letters swimming around in the inky void inside your device. A universe of words. Galaxies of words.
I want them all. This was not me, earlier. Books are finite things, of finite length and width and height, made from finite forests. Even if you entered the largest library, and there are some really large ones, there’s still four walls, a roof, a sense of containment. There was the possibility one could wade through it all, with diligence and, yes, glue. I don’t think that anymore. I know I’ll never read it all, so I skim. That’s a word from a more mundane universe, that of dairy farms – the fat has been removed from reading. I am diet-reading these days, maybe that’s why the feeling of fullness is no longer there. I’m constantly hungry – though, I suppose, fit. My eyes, at least, should be the fittest on the planet, they race through miles and miles and miles of prose. Sometimes I feel nostalgic for the days I had fat eyes, lazy eyes that bulged, wouldn’t budge from a sentence or a paragraph until well and truly ready.
I race through feed reads, through newspaper headlines, through stacks of prose that appear miraculously as I bring my index finger down, aware that there’s a bookrack behind me filled with unread books looking accusingly at the back of my head. But what can one do? I was an earthbound armchair reader – not that we had an armchair, but it feels nice saying that instead of saying I used to read in an easy chair made of white paint and peeling cane. Today, I’m a cosmic voyager. I’m George Clooney in Gravity, untethered and spiralling into infinities that fit into my palm..
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2015 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Amrtha
August 27, 2015
Why is it that all of us who like to read, like to think about how we read at some point? Is writing down what you read a good way to engage better with a book? I think so – more as to why, here –
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tonks
August 27, 2015
Typo second para : and there are some really large ones
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brangan
August 27, 2015
tonks: Thanks.
I didn’t intend for that to rhyme, promise 🙂
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Srinivas R
August 27, 2015
“I’m George Clooney in Gravity, untethered and spiralling into infinities that fit into my palm..”
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Chanakya
August 27, 2015
I’m guessing you have a Galaxy phone. Am I correct, BR?
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tonks
August 27, 2015
Reading on the net, can reduce one’s attention span because people have the tendency to “power browse” ( skimming articles by searching for key words ) and this can lead to weaker reading comprehension skills. Loyalists for traditional paper books who say that e- books can never replace them. They prefer the touch, feel and smell of a traditional book. Paper books are also said to cause less eye strain than e-books and do not require a power source.
However e-books have some major advantages. They are cheaper than paper books and are easier to carry around. A tablet or e-reader that is small enough to fit into a purse or a pocket, can carry thousands of e books. Even though they can be a strain on the eye, this can be reduced by adjusting the font size to suit personal preferences. They are more environment friendly, not requiring trees to be cut down. There is no need for an external light source, so reading can be done in poor lighting conditions and without disturbing roommates or partners. When I visited two of the cities I grew up in after many years, I found that both my favorite libraries had made way for other shops. Even though traditional libraries are becoming extinct, in their place however, we have online libraries that help people access (for a membership fee) premium e-journals and e-books in the comfort of homes.
The electronic era aided reading in other ways. There are many pages on the net that give suggestions for books. These pages post various write-ups by different people, that create awareness about the books on offer. “Goodreads” allows individuals to search its extensive database of books and its stated mission is “to help people find and share books they love”. On the Goodreads website, users can add books to their personal bookshelves, rate and review books, see what their friends are reading, what their favourite authors are writing, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices based on their reviews and ratings of previously read books. You can browse for books based on your genre of preference
Also there are audio books available that allow you to “read” while listening and this is especially useful while driving. In the past where if one’s lending library (or book store) did not stock a book, it would have been near impossible to read it. Now everythings available online. I found to my delight that many of my favorite eighteenth century classics (by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy and others) are available free on the net because according to international copyright laws, books printed before 1923 are in the public domain and available free for everyone.
These days people research for books they want to read using the internet. Goodreads is my personal preference for this but there are also some pages like Book Riot on Facebook that give you updates about new releases. These days all you need is a tablet and a net connection and you can order and read any book in the world, without getting up from your chair.
I guess there are more than enough reasons now to re”kindle” ones reading habit 😉
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damilan
August 27, 2015
What timing! Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) blogged about something related just a couple of days back:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/127569040096/digital-distraction-syndrome
He talks about the aural equivalent of your lament.
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Anu Warrier
August 27, 2015
You echo my plaint these days! Gone are the days when I could sit for hours, nose in a book. There just isn’t time any more, and let’s face it, my attention span isn’t as it used to be either. I too skim through the weightier tomes, but I’m not as sure as you that I’m as fit as I used to be. I devoured books those days; now, it is just about enough to keep me alive. I held out against the Kindle for ages; I got one as a prize, and now it is used on long flights since it is convenient. I still buy dead-tree copies though, I still love how it feels in my hand, the pages crisp as I turn it, and how it smells when I first open it. (Second-hand books smell different, the paper soft from the years, a slightly wet, musty smell. I love that as well.) I love writing my name on the fly leaf, with the date on which it was purchased.
My husband and I have told our sons that this is their patrimony – books. Lots and lots of books. This is all we have to leave them, other than giving them a good education. After that? They are on their own.
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Karthik
August 27, 2015
I apologize for a long comment.
aware that there’s a bookrack behind me filled with unread books looking accusingly at the back of my head reminded me of a poem my father wrote about “A bookshelf’s plea” many many years ago that I thought I’d share here (and a reply to him that I had penned recently).
கண்ணாடிக் கதவுகள் மூடி இருக்க
கட்டுக் கட்டாக புத்தகங்கள் பார்க்க
திட்டாத குறையாக என்னைக் கேட்க
தொட்டு எடுத்து படிக்க மறந்தனையோ
இனிய சமூக நாவல்கள் சில
பெரிய மனிதர்கள் கட்டுரைகள் பல
கவிநயம் மிக்க கவிதைகள் பற்பல
கண்சிமிட்டி கேட்குது படிக்க மனமில்லையோ
பட்டு போன மொட்டை மரத்தில்
இலைகள் மீண்டும் வந்து துளிர்க்காது
படித்த புத்தகத்தை மறுமுறை புரட்ட
சுவை கூடும் என்பதும் தெரியாதோ
புத்தகங்களின் உறவு அற்று போனது
மார்புமீது வைத்து உறங்கினது நினைவில்லையோ
வாடிய மலர்களென்று தூக்கி எறிந்தாயோ
வாசிக்க வாசிக்க தரும் குதூகலம் மீண்டும்வருமோ
This was my reply
அலமாரி இன்று மாறி போனது
மரமும் கதவும் மறைந்துவிட்டது
புத்தகம் மின் வடிவம் அடைந்தது
கைப்பிடி கணினிக்குள் இணைந்தது
ஓட்டின் அளவில் நூலகம் தோன்றிட
புத்தகம் யாவும் நொடியில் திறந்திட
எழுதியோர் குரலிலே இலக்கியம் கேட்டிட
அலமாரிக்கோர் புனர்ஜன்மம் அமைந்தது
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Iswarya
August 27, 2015
Anu: I would like to engrave that patrimony part on my library wall. Having received an inheritance of the same sort myself, there’s really nothing I feel I can leave behind for posterity other than the collection that I now guard over like a fire-breathing dragon! I hoard books the way I see so many people of my peer group accumulate jewellery, gadgets and clothing. 😀
And I’m with you again on the paper books. My eco-concern is reflected in buying most of my books second-hand and most of them from the US. I can’t feel all happy about finishing a book, if I’ve never touched its physical copy even once. I attach an almost talismanic value to it. When I can’t afford some of those hardbacks I see in the library for my personal buying, I at least take them off the shelf and get their touch-feel before going back home and downloading the electronic copies. 🙂
I totally agree with Alain de Botton here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10193467/Authors-stand-up-for-traditional-books-over-e-books.html
It’s not only the skimming. E-books positively work against retention.
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Ram Murali
August 27, 2015
Anu Warrier – I really liked your comment. As a person that developed an interest in reading (non-fiction) not until my late 20s, I completely agree with your comment on leaving a knowledge repository for your kids. I try to read as much meaningful non-fiction as I can. I feel that encouraging my son (as he grows older; he’s only 3 now and cares a little more about “Goodnight Moon!”) to imbibe some of the things that I learn from these non-fiction books at a young age is probably the most valuable thing that I can bequeath to him. I think it’s no understatement to say that two books that have changed my life for the better are Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” and Sheena Iyengar’s “The Art of Choosing.”
Here’re my tributes to them as part of my “Inspirations” series:
http://thinkinggotloud.blogspot.com/2011/05/inspirations-1-of-25-dr-sheena-iyengar.html
http://thinkinggotloud.blogspot.com/2011/07/inspirations-5-of-25-randy-pausch.html
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Di
August 27, 2015
Baddyji… did you get bifocals recently.. lol
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Anuja Chandramouli
August 27, 2015
What a lovely article! To quote Anu Warrior, You echo my plaint these days! I too spent entire summer vacations with my nose buried in books with mum yelling at me to go outside and play while Dad would ask her to leave me alone. Dad and his four sisters were/are voracious readers and they filled up an entire library in our family home with the books they had purchased since childhood and all the way till they married and headed off in different directions! That place with shelves and shelves of musty old books remains my favourite place in the entire world. It is just too bad, it is no longer possible to disappear for entire days into the pages of a book. Which is why I am waiting for George damned Martin to put me out of my misery and release his next book. It would give me a good reason to go on a reading binge and switch off from the rest of the world.
I resisted kindle for the longest time but a cousin insisted on gifting me one saying it was criminal for someone who loved books as much as I do, to not have one. The biggest advantage is that I can read the damn thing in the dark. Back in boarding school, I used to huddle under the blanket and read with a torch. It worked just fine, till my ophthalmologist made me promise I’d quit it. Years later, I’d feel guilty when I read on as the light grew dim but with kindle it is cool.
That said, there is nothing in the world to beat the feel of a book in your hands! And sure I cannot read as much as I used to but whenever it is possible to devote myself entirely to hardcore reading, it feels like heaven. And till, I can get over that horribly adulterous feeling when using kindle, I’ll stick to tree – killer books, thank you.
Thanks to the internet and smartphones, I think we all have a degree of ADHD and tend to skim through the oceans of information out there. Twitter is another causal factor and nowadays if you can’t say whatever you have to in 120 characters or less you are expected to shut the frick up. Mercifully, though when I pick up a book (or Kindle), I find that old habits die hard and it is possible to read the entire thing, even if I have less patience with authors who take forever to make their point, in which case I just take forever to read it, and cuss out the author every step of the way.
Wow! What a long comment! And if you had trouble making it all the way to the bottom, I don’t think it is my fault for taking forever and a day to make my point, you probably have ADHD 🙂
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Anu Warrier
August 27, 2015
Ishwarya, my ‘dowry’ consisted of one suitcase of clothes, and two huge cartons of books. My MIL was appalled. 🙂 She already had one kitabi keeda in her son; now here came her DIL with more books.
I agree with you about not feeling like you’ve read a book until you have physically held it. As for retention, you’re right – I remember more from the books I’ve read than from words on a white screen.
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Shankar
August 28, 2015
Baddy…“I was an earthbound armchair reader”..
channeling your inner Pink Floyd, eh? 🙂
@Anu Warrier, @Iswarya, completely agree with what you both said. My grandfather and my dad were voracious readers and collectors of books. Growing up, I would visit my grandfather’s house in the village and in a dedicated room in the house which resembled a library with shelves and such, I could always find a book I hadn’t read before. There were all kinds – fiction, non-fiction, encyclopedias and what not. They painstakingly collected books, new and second hand, bound them so the pages wouldn’t fall off. We have kept most of the books and added to our collection. As you said, that is the treasure that we can pass on to our kids (who I hope will still read on paper!).
To me, there is nothing like an actual book. I like to hold it in my hand. Some of my friends (including the owner of this blog! 🙂 ) have written books and I have so far resisted the temptation to download electronic copies from Amazon. I want to read the actual book! 🙂
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tonks
August 28, 2015
Ive always been a compulsive reader since childhood. The kind who reads, say, even the newspaper they wrap vegetables in. Perhaps that is why Ive never really had the “retention” issues with e books that some have spoken about. I assimilate and retain them as well as paper books. Its not the medium (paper vs e) that affects my concentration : its fb, whatsapp and the net in general that distracts me from my reading. Once I make sure the net connection is off, I can still (thankfully) sail through long, heavy e books.
I totally agree with what was said here in other comments about the touch and smell of paper books. I like the smell of new books too but its the old musty unique smell of the library Enid Blytons of my childhood thats up there at the top of my favourite smell list. Admittedly, e books do not have that feature. Which is not reason enough for me to overlook all their advantages that I had listed earlier. Ever since I switched to e books, I find that I read a lot more books per month, of a lot more genres and variety, than I was able to with my (now frozen) public library membership. I read all the time : during breaks in my job, while travelling, waiting for something, and while relaxing on a holiday. If I do not suddenly feel in the mood for a particular author, I can choose another. Almost all the heavy referance books that I need to sometimes look at, in my speciality, I now have in my files. I have the entire Tintin, Asterix, Amar Chitra Katha and Calvin and Hobbes collection on my tiny tablet in addition to the complete works of Agatha Christie, Wodehouse, and innumerable other authors. To me, its almost a miracle to able to whip out whatever author I am in the mood for, at a moments notice. I find myself a (very) delighted convert and blessing technology.
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Rahini David
August 28, 2015
I have read these rants in many blogs about people are not able to relate to Kindle and eReaders and I for one never understood why this is such a big deal at all. I should admit that the reason I feel comfortable with the iPad iBooks app is that it simulates the look and feel of a book and has the following added advantages.
You can open the next tab and use dictionary and/or Wiki entry on the given topic and come back to the text a little richer. This is sometimes very important when you read non-fiction. It matters to me if the information is correct or not.
You don’t have to endure “the look” from religious people when you are reading “The God Delusion” or worse, endure conversation on the given topic.
— Ditto –, regarding Harlequins with Steaming Hot covers where the heroine is melting into the hero’s arms.
You don’t have to give it back.
It does not get dirty.
It remembers which page you were last on. I used to forget that all the time in paper books.
You can carry many books at a time.
I am currently reading 2 books, I read one last night after reading this article, I read the other this morning. I should confess both are giving equal satisfation. I never promise a monogamous relationship with any of my books
I also never understand the fuss over lending books and not getting them back. I am not too worried if the person did really bother to read atleast parts of it.
And I totally totally do not understand the fuss over breaking the spine of a book. In fact, I believe that no respectable book should have an unbroken spine.
http://seemagoswami.blogspot.fr/2010/10/old-friends-thats-what-books-are-so-how.html
http://seemagoswami.blogspot.fr/2013/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-ja-x_21.html
I found that the way I engage in books has changed a lot. I used to read whatever I laid my hands on, now that I have more choice, I gravitate towards very few topics and authors. I spend even upto a month with the same book, reading and re-reading and rereading.
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tonks
August 28, 2015
@brangan Since this is a related topic, and this is something I wanted to bring up when I read that old post recently : sometime back you had blogged about meaning to start on Emma Donoghue’s Room but that because its a Booker winning book, you anticipated boredom and were preparing yourself by gorging on a junk book (Thornbirds). Perhaps you got around to reading it, in which case you would have discovered it for yourself : but Room despite being an award winner (and yes, generally Booker winners are dreary) is not boring. Its a very disturbing, stunning, emotional, captivating page turner and quite simply one of the best books Ive ever read.
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Rahini David
August 28, 2015
Tonks: I have the entire Tintin, Asterix, Amar Chitra Katha and Calvin and Hobbes collection on my tiny tablet in addition to the complete works of Agatha Christie, Wodehouse, and innumerable other authors. Oh I love you so much 😀
Please tell me how you got the entire Amar Chitra Katha in you Tab and I will love you more.
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Puneeta
August 28, 2015
This is too much indulgence in self-pity- and has nothing to do with the technology. Actually if you really want to read, you will- be it a paper book or a kindle 🙂 Ask any kid who has ploughed through all seven volumes of Harry Potter despite having multiple distractions and being at a, well, distractable(is that a word, guess not, its underlined in red!) age.
The thing is as we grow up we become more discerning in our tastes, there are only a few set books that can make us feel like reading. There are only a few authors whose “style” of writing gets us going.
It’s the same with all art- be it music, movies, paintings, sculpture.
You start with devouring everything you can get, and then slowly evolve into certain particular styles that you gravitate toward. Once that happens if you still insist on going back to the “Devoiring everything you can get” stage, of course you are going to skim, of course, there are going to be one night stands with no calls returned! You can’t expect a lifetime relationship when you’re still attempting to hold on to the standards of a hormone-driven teenager 😛
Embrace your discernment 😀
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Puneeta
August 28, 2015
As for the eternal Kindle vs paper argument, I have a simple (if ADHD) solution. I use the paper book in the day- it forces me to sit up and read in a good posture.
I read for an hour every night before I sleep (again ADHD insistence upon routine), and make use of the Kindle to continue on the same page that I was on in the physical book. Simple? Yes. Best of both worlds? Hell yes! 🙂
This also means I have a physical and kindle copy of every book, which is an expensive but totally worthwhile hobby 😉
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Destination Infinity
August 28, 2015
Forget Kindle guys — it’s not 2010 😛 Nowadays I listen to audio books. Or use TTS (Text to Speech) technology to listen to eBooks through my mobile. Saves a lot of eye strain and headache 🙂
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Anuja Chandramouli
August 28, 2015
Rahini David: And I totally totally do not understand the fuss over breaking the spine of a book. In fact, I believe that no respectable book should have an unbroken spine.
Ye gads! The blasphemy! Forgive her book Gods! She knoweth not what she writeth! If I lend a book to someone and they break the spine, spill stuff on it, lick a finger to turn the page, make dog ears, scribble on it, etc. I’ll have to exert every ounce of self – control to not launch myself on the offender and pummel the said individual to within an inch of his or her life. Whichever way it goes, the offender goes on my list. Books are sacrosanct and they ought to be treated with respect. Actually, I feel the same way about kindle. When people ask to take a look and even if they are close friends or relatives, I tend to hesitate, looking for reasons to turn them down, imagining unspeakable horrors about the shape their hands are in. I mean there is no way of knowing if the finger has been in the vicinity of a snotty nostril or properly washed after a trip to the bathroom right?
The way I see it, stories are pure gold and whatever form they are in, ought to be treated with the same degree of reverence.
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Anu Warrier
August 28, 2015
@ Rahini David: I also never understand the fuss over lending books and not getting them back.
and
And I totally totally do not understand the fuss over breaking the spine of a book. In fact, I believe that no respectable book should have an unbroken spine.
Ye gads and little fishes! Allow me to share Anuja’s horror, and now that I’ve finished hyperventilating, let me address the first one (since Anuja has done a very good job of dealing with the second, my only caveat being that some of my favourite books have become bent over because of being frequently read – by me!).
I’ll tell you why I have an issue with lending out my books and not getting them back. I spend a lot of time, effort and money collecting my books. For instance, when I was pregnant with my eldest, I spent every lunch hour walking the one-km stretch between Churchgate and Fountain, poring over every second-hand bookwallah’s wares, so I could buy up every single Enid Blyton, Georgette Heyer, Sudden, Billy Bunter, and any other treasure that my digging unearthed.
A great deal of my salary went into buying books, both old and new. When people then take them to read – to which I have no objection – and then either destroy them (yes, my BIL kept my new copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes to cover his hot coffee!) or lose them, or even steal them for their own collection, they are not treating a book with a respect it deserves, and are, in fact, disrespecting me, my time, my money as of no consequence. Some of the books I have are now out of print and cannot be bought unless I’m willing to pay a king’s ransom. (I’m willing, but my bank balance says otherwise.) So when they lose them/pilfer them, they are telling me that they do not care how I feel about my books.
Plus, I also think it is a matter of how you were brought up – my father travelled a lot for work. So when he returned, he would have two bestsellers (one for each leg of the journey) plus books for all of us. The first thing he did when he got home was to use a brown paper cover, or an old newspaper to cover his books – this, for bestsellers. He also used bookmarks (the sides of cigarette cartons), so that is how I am even today. 🙂
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Anu Warrier
August 28, 2015
@Tonks, I have almost the entire set of Amar Chitra Katha in book form. 🙂 I bound quite a few of them, but then the little printing press closed down. And recently, a friend brought me about 200+ of the Indrajal comics on a flash drive, so I’m delving into Phantom and Mandrake and Flash Gordon. 🙂
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Iswarya
August 28, 2015
Anuja: Same horror reaction here. But then, when I thought about it, I think a lot of this boils down to the choice of books that we treasure or treat with reverence. Someone here mentioned the 7 huge(?!) volumes of Harry Potter. I remember buying most of them in a boxed set and once I was done with it, I lent them indefinitely to a favourite cousin whose ADD didn’t even let her move beyond the second one. Apparently, she found the movie versions enough. Same way, once I was through with my huge boxed set of the Sherlock Holmes books, I put them away somewhere and am not even able to trace then not. This, for a person who has a sacrosanct zero-lending policy about books (having witnessed how my grandpa’s beloved pulp collection was stolen away one book at a time)!
So, books that earn your everlasting respect are the ones you tend to guard zealously, I guess. In which case, I can kinda see Rahini’s point about books that belong to the other end of the spectrum – Books that I don’t mind lending, getting the spine broken, pages greased away by contact with random sweaty hands, etc. Some of what she included in the list definitely qualifies, like the harlequins.
Rahini: On the subject of concealing the book cover for ‘controversial’ titles, isn’t the easiest thing to wrap them in newspapers/brown paper? I still remember the look of shock on one of my teachers’ faces when I bought a glossy paperback with some Greek nudes on the cover as the book to be presented by my college department for the best outgoing student of the year. The book was actually just some innocuous Classical poetry, but the cover was something that made everybody squirm a little (considering the ultra-conservative college it was). Especially since it had to be handed over at a college function by the correspondent under big lights and camera flashes, we decided to quietly wrap the book in brown cover and put my name on top. Ever since, I’ve been keeping ALL my books wrapped in laminated brown sheets and labeled on the spine, in the absence of dust jackets for most books we buy here in India.
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Iswarya
August 28, 2015
Anu: We seem to have a lot in common, after all. I remember too the incredible thought, effort and money (in days when it was really dear) put into building up the coveted collection I possess now. Days of scrounging and haggling with the second hand dealers when I was in my late teens and early 20s to buy books by bagfuls.. My luckiest haul was 45 books in one go for 600 bucks (which still includes most of my Thomas Hardys, Jane Austens, Bronte sisters, Joseph Conrads and this then-unfamiliar-to-me writer called Salman Rushdie!)
Even now, there is the on-and-off dusting and endless updating of my catalogue (in an Excel doc) that I do as a ritual at least once in two years. That’s when some of the books I don’t re-read as often as I ought to show signs of falling away to pieces with age and, egad, how I nurse them! Right from plastering parts of the spine with thick new white paper to gingerly cello-taping pages that have been damaged by rude turning, I could conduct a course on book first-aid and running a rare book ICU!
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SR
August 28, 2015
et tu, Rangan! Say it ain’t so.
E-book reading is akin to making 300 yard shots with a new driver inside a simulated course in a golf store ( a poor facsimile of freshly cut grass, spring breeze, blue skies with dappled sunlight….)
E-books vs. paper copies: how to discern a mere literate from those who savor literacy
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Shankar
August 28, 2015
First of all, there isn’t really a rant about Kindle vs. Old school books…it is just people voicing their opinions. To each their own! Nothing wrong with people sticking to how they grew up with books and choosing to prefer that while others embracing technology and sampling more authors and more topics. I have to say, in my case, I’ve become very choosy about who I read now…as Puneeta said..very discerning. I like the comfort zone of my favorite authors. Unfortunately I also believe this is not a good thing since it doesn’t allow me to venture and experience newer authors…it is my loss.
But in terms of caring for the book, I echo Anu Warrier and Anuja. It is sacrilege for me to keep the book open, face down while taking a break. I always encourage my little one to use a book mark! 🙂 But that’s more a reflection of how I grew up (and what I mentioned earlier about binding the books and so forth). I also agree on the time/effort spent in collecting these treasures and the reverence part. I have the exact same feelings towards music. I have a sizable, legal collection of rare music which I’ve spent ages scrounging and collecting.
Again, I look at these things as opinions and how they were formed, in some cases, by how you grew up with books. Mine were formed during my years discovering books in vast collection at home! To each their own! 🙂
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brangan
August 28, 2015
Shankar: Exactly. I didn’t intend this as a rant or an outpouring of self-pity. Just a bit of thought-flexing about then versus now… 🙂
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KayKay
August 29, 2015
A post on reading, which I enjoyed reading. Twice. Without skimming. And as I read it, in my room, I also glance at my bookshelves with rows and rows of unread books. Have suffered from “Book Greed” since my teens, I’m always buying far more than I can read. And that to me is a good thing.
It’s a nice feeling to glance at the shelves and be comforted with the knowledge that there’s so many books I’ve yet to read. Happy in the knowledge I’ll never run out of books to read, like worrying about a possible famine and then checking the store room and knowing you have enough food supplies to last you for a decade.
A slight sense of anxiety that I may NEVER finish reading them all in this lifetime.
The excitement of reading a page-turner, and the anticipation of getting back to it after a hard day’s work, comfort in the knowledge that It’ll be on the table, right where you left it, book-marked to where you last finished (you people who fold pages to mark it or leaving it open face down, there’s a special circle in Hell reserved for all of you where you’ll be stuck in an endless reading loop of E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Crap)
The “nerdy” fascination of pulling all those books out, every once in awhile and re-arranging them. Sometimes alphabetically, sometimes by genre, sometimes by size.
Glancing at your shelving choices and going on flights of fancy. Seeing Tolkien’s Hobbit and Rings Trilogy next to George R R Martin’s Game Of Thrones and wondering, if Legolas and Aragorn stumbled into King’s Landing, who would Cersei choose to shag first? Danaery’s Dragons against Smaug? Who’d get fried first? Could Tyrion and Frodo be friends or would the former’s relentless whoring put off the latter?
Seeing an autobiography of Rod Stewart, a Rock Star next to an autobiography of Jenna Jameson, a Porn Star and wondering, given that Jenna is soooo Rod’s type of girl (Blonde and Busty), would Rod occasionally slip out of his book and slip into Jenna’s book, slip into Jenna, and then slip out back to his own?
The near endless rounds of decision-making as I peruse the shelves to pick that perfect title for a holiday read when some vacation time looms. Ken Follet’s 1000 page Historical epics or the complete set of RK Narayan’s Malgudi books?
Now excuse me, while I go peruse my bookshelves again. Maybe another re-arranging is in order 🙂
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brangan
August 29, 2015
KayKay: Rod occasionally slip out of his book and slip into Jenna’s book, slip into Jenna, and then slip out back to his own?
Awesome 😀
Talking about rearranging, here’s a post from a hundred years ago:
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Anu Warrier
August 29, 2015
KayKay, standing ovation, my friend. That’s exactly the way I feel about my books, and bookshelves. In fact, I just spent the last two days, removing them, dusting the shelves and rearranging them alphabetically, according to genre. I too have more books than I have read, I too buy books like they are going extinct, which perhaps they will, soon. I will not repeat what you said; I cannot say it better.
Thank you for that.
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vishal yogin
August 29, 2015
“Today, I’m a cosmic voyager”
And yet we all remain chained or confined within the boundaries of translation.
How many of us venture beyond english to even move to the mother tongue?
A curse indeed.
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Iswarya
August 30, 2015
KayKay: Second Anu. Great comment. 🙂
Anu: This must really be the bibliophiles’ spring cleaning season! Must be something in the air. I’m right now in the process of arranging all the books on my fiction shelf by alphabetical order of authors’ last names! And while the process is on, all those 200-odd novels neatly stacked on the floor over newspapers waiting to go and sit in their new order inside the shelf, the not-infrequent distraction of getting carried away by a long-neglected piece of favourite fiction into letting the cataloguing process hang fire and drifting off alone for a quick re-read jumping over pages, the occasional rude shocks of discovering that an exotic paperback you had hunted down from the second-hand dealer’s actually misses the last pages and the hand-wringing over whether to keep that book still in the catalogue or not (no way I’m going to throw the book itself away, but the official status of appearing on the catalogue influences purchasing decisions and so..) – these are things to send me on endless raptures. And I’m dragging out the process just to keep the books in sight as a neat pile taken out for airing much longer! 😀
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