Reading as we all know is a very good habit. I still remember my Dad insisting me "Reading maketh a full man". He persisted on reading very much at my younger age. It got to me.I did love to read books,magazines,newspapers etc.At my young age, I loved reading story books .I was a total sucker to Tinkle stories . However was pretty much focused on stories of the types that were short and sweet(like Kalia the Crow,Suppandi etc). I was not much attracted to books that turned to lots of pages. There should have been either something wrong with me(my brain not able to concentrate for long hours) or the author was not able to convince me to sit down and read the book for hours.
To be frank I rate myself to be bad at story book reading,in fact I hate those small books(small in size but huge in content) called the Novel.I couldn't ask myself to sit over and read through the pages of a book with tiny letters running through heaps of pages without any pictures.I tried my luck on some books written by pretty famous novelists like Sidney Sheldon. In fact I was reading through one of his book like for months but I never felt I was into it. I was reading it for the sake of reading.I used to wonder(and still wonder) "Why the heck do novels don't have better font sizes?"By doing so, I need not spend all my energy on trying to look hard at what the letters are and rather enjoy the content.And why don't they provide some colorful pictures in Novels.Am a strong believer of the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". Perhaps by doing so the author can create a image of the characters being portrayed so that the reader may relate very well to the characters and the situation pretty easily and get absorbed into the story.
Well the reason am writing this blog and the above two paras is to give a picture of what kind of person I was and how much I hated to read stories, to be specific, stories which runs into pages. It was a Saturday morning and I was just gazing through the Metro Plus paper(my usual weekend routine) and there was an article which was a success story about a theater group in Chennai called Evam. When reading through, the article mentioned about a book named "One Night @ Call Center" and this Evam people very much wanted to portray it as a play. On the same day evening, I had gone to a mall with one of my friend to help him out with his shopping. I took with me a landmark gift coupon(worth 250) which I had to spend it out someway or the other as it was nearing its expiry.When I was passing through the heaps of books at landmark [ which kind of geeks me :) ]I noticed the same book "One Night at the call center". To be honest I immediately looked for the price( as a normal guy who has no idea about what story book reading is does :-)).To my luck it was cheap(Rs 91) well within my 250 gift coupon limits :). The interest on this book was surely gained by me through the Evam article or else I would have never known such a book existed .So I just took upon this book happily thinking there I go, I have spent 90 out of 250.Deep inside me there was this book telling me "Hey am I going to be one of your books that always remains in your shelves?? :) ".It was pretty sarcastic but somehow it was true,I just buy books and read 2-3 pages before I forget that I have bought such a book.
And the next day(Sunday) morning the book was there, right inside the bag that I had put it in when I bought it. Just out of no other thing to do(my mom was out for some class) I started to read through this book. I never used to read through the first few pages of any story book which describes about the authors or the story(boring stuff !!!) that will follow. But this time upon I insisted myself that am going to do that. I didn't regret my this decision to read it. It was one of the best epilogues or intro whatever.More importantly it kept me going. I felt the inner soul inside me saying "Man this stuff is good.. go on.. ".And so slowly I gelled with the book. It wasn't after few minutes, I realized I had gone through almost 8 out of the 30 odd chapters in that book. Really not bad, for a guy who turns away after glancing through 2 pages. Initially it was hard for me to remember the characters and their names but slowly and surely I could even picture them and sense the story as if i was seeing it. I had almost read half the book on that day before I realized I needed to go to see a friend of mine and also to pick my mom from her class. The Sunday ended with me not touching the book anymore as we had lots of guests and friends visiting us. But deep inside me I could sense that I will complete reading this book sooner than the later. Monday being the first day of the week I had to get things straight at the office .... But Monday night,I read through some pages of the book. It got late and after a tired and hectic day I couldn't stop myself from sleeping.
The next day morning(Tue) as soon as I got up... am not sure what made me do this.After going through the newspaper I immediately took upon this book.It was a working day but I didn't mind it. I wanted to read this book. Now this was the difference.Previously I read books for the sake of reading but now I read as I really wanted to read.I started at almost 7 and I realized that it was 9 only when my mom told me it was getting late for me to the office.But my urge to read through the book was much higher than getting ready to the office :) So I went ahead and continued to read through the book. The best point of this book was that it never made me think a particular part was boring or was unacceptable. And if a author can make a guy like me feel like that then I really bet he has to be a good script writer.I continued to read the book and when I sensed I could complete it by today I decided am going to do with this right now and so did I. I was so happy with myself, for reading a good book,for completing a book within 2 days of reading(3 days of buying) but more importantly for realizing that even I could read a book of 400 odd pages completely enjoying the stuff. I skipped my breakfast that day in order to compensate my lost office hours...I was already running late.In fact I forgot to attend a very very important meeting at my office( felt very bad about it) however when I realized the book had glued me in such a way that I didn't remember this important meeting and my breakfast I could say nothing but Kudos to the author.
I now realize that there was neither any problem(sitting for long hours) with me nor with the authors. I realized it when I read this book "I didn't know where to start".It was the content that didn't match my frequency or taste.I realize now that am much Indian material who would love to sit and read through stories(real life stories with some added spices) written by Indian Authors. Am really not an expert in recommending authors or books(in fact am looking upon for the help of avid book lovers to guide me in this) but am sure if you were of the type who really wanted to do some good story book reading but not sure where to start off as I was,this piece of work by Chetan Bhagat really qualifies to be "The Book".
To be frank I rate myself to be bad at story book reading,in fact I hate those small books(small in size but huge in content) called the Novel.I couldn't ask myself to sit over and read through the pages of a book with tiny letters running through heaps of pages without any pictures.I tried my luck on some books written by pretty famous novelists like Sidney Sheldon. In fact I was reading through one of his book like for months but I never felt I was into it. I was reading it for the sake of reading.I used to wonder(and still wonder) "Why the heck do novels don't have better font sizes?"By doing so, I need not spend all my energy on trying to look hard at what the letters are and rather enjoy the content.And why don't they provide some colorful pictures in Novels.Am a strong believer of the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". Perhaps by doing so the author can create a image of the characters being portrayed so that the reader may relate very well to the characters and the situation pretty easily and get absorbed into the story.
Well the reason am writing this blog and the above two paras is to give a picture of what kind of person I was and how much I hated to read stories, to be specific, stories which runs into pages. It was a Saturday morning and I was just gazing through the Metro Plus paper(my usual weekend routine) and there was an article which was a success story about a theater group in Chennai called Evam. When reading through, the article mentioned about a book named "One Night @ Call Center" and this Evam people very much wanted to portray it as a play. On the same day evening, I had gone to a mall with one of my friend to help him out with his shopping. I took with me a landmark gift coupon(worth 250) which I had to spend it out someway or the other as it was nearing its expiry.When I was passing through the heaps of books at landmark [ which kind of geeks me :) ]I noticed the same book "One Night at the call center". To be honest I immediately looked for the price( as a normal guy who has no idea about what story book reading is does :-)).To my luck it was cheap(Rs 91) well within my 250 gift coupon limits :). The interest on this book was surely gained by me through the Evam article or else I would have never known such a book existed .So I just took upon this book happily thinking there I go, I have spent 90 out of 250.Deep inside me there was this book telling me "Hey am I going to be one of your books that always remains in your shelves?? :) ".It was pretty sarcastic but somehow it was true,I just buy books and read 2-3 pages before I forget that I have bought such a book.
And the next day(Sunday) morning the book was there, right inside the bag that I had put it in when I bought it. Just out of no other thing to do(my mom was out for some class) I started to read through this book. I never used to read through the first few pages of any story book which describes about the authors or the story(boring stuff !!!) that will follow. But this time upon I insisted myself that am going to do that. I didn't regret my this decision to read it. It was one of the best epilogues or intro whatever.More importantly it kept me going. I felt the inner soul inside me saying "Man this stuff is good.. go on.. ".And so slowly I gelled with the book. It wasn't after few minutes, I realized I had gone through almost 8 out of the 30 odd chapters in that book. Really not bad, for a guy who turns away after glancing through 2 pages. Initially it was hard for me to remember the characters and their names but slowly and surely I could even picture them and sense the story as if i was seeing it. I had almost read half the book on that day before I realized I needed to go to see a friend of mine and also to pick my mom from her class. The Sunday ended with me not touching the book anymore as we had lots of guests and friends visiting us. But deep inside me I could sense that I will complete reading this book sooner than the later. Monday being the first day of the week I had to get things straight at the office .... But Monday night,I read through some pages of the book. It got late and after a tired and hectic day I couldn't stop myself from sleeping.
The next day morning(Tue) as soon as I got up... am not sure what made me do this.After going through the newspaper I immediately took upon this book.It was a working day but I didn't mind it. I wanted to read this book. Now this was the difference.Previously I read books for the sake of reading but now I read as I really wanted to read.I started at almost 7 and I realized that it was 9 only when my mom told me it was getting late for me to the office.But my urge to read through the book was much higher than getting ready to the office :) So I went ahead and continued to read through the book. The best point of this book was that it never made me think a particular part was boring or was unacceptable. And if a author can make a guy like me feel like that then I really bet he has to be a good script writer.I continued to read the book and when I sensed I could complete it by today I decided am going to do with this right now and so did I. I was so happy with myself, for reading a good book,for completing a book within 2 days of reading(3 days of buying) but more importantly for realizing that even I could read a book of 400 odd pages completely enjoying the stuff. I skipped my breakfast that day in order to compensate my lost office hours...I was already running late.In fact I forgot to attend a very very important meeting at my office( felt very bad about it) however when I realized the book had glued me in such a way that I didn't remember this important meeting and my breakfast I could say nothing but Kudos to the author.
I now realize that there was neither any problem(sitting for long hours) with me nor with the authors. I realized it when I read this book "I didn't know where to start".It was the content that didn't match my frequency or taste.I realize now that am much Indian material who would love to sit and read through stories(real life stories with some added spices) written by Indian Authors. Am really not an expert in recommending authors or books(in fact am looking upon for the help of avid book lovers to guide me in this) but am sure if you were of the type who really wanted to do some good story book reading but not sure where to start off as I was,this piece of work by Chetan Bhagat really qualifies to be "The Book".
No comments:
Post a Comment