Madras Connemera Library..

Autographed books, more books & my bookshelf

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place, you can install,
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”
– from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)

If it were up to me, homes will have a bookshelf in every room. Who needs fancy furniture and TV and all that jazz, right? lol. For as long as I can remember, I have always had 2-3 books beside me at any given point in time.

It all started with my uncles and athai [aunt = dad’s sis], who got me books whenever they came visiting.

 I still remember the very first set of books that athai gave me, it was a set short tales- everything from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Jack and the beanstalk, Robinson Crusoe, Little Red Riding Hood and 1 other, am trying to recall the name… I had these books with me till a couple years back and I passed it on to our friends kid saying enjoy .

From there on, I remember I was always with my head buried in books. Every time my uncles would visit us (madurai and tirunelveli), they always brought books – Enid Blyton or other kinds of books/comics along with a couple of music (cassettes).. And that how my love for books and music began.

Remember back in the day we had a Sharp two cassettes+ radio player which stood on my study table and a few years later another uncle of mine gifted me a Walkman.Little did I know that these would become a part of my life like no other. In fact I have started calling them my eternal companions as they continue to be my companion even today, just that the device/ the format has changed with time.

I went through the whole face where I moved from reading Tinkle or other comics to Enid Blyton and then slightly more serious stuff. I had gotten into this pattern during high school days- I would pick an author and if I liked one of their books, I would read everything they had published before moving on to the next author.. I did that with Robin Cook, John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, Frederick Forsyth, Sidney Sheldon, Erich Segal, James Patterson, Lee Child, Haruki Murakami, and pretty much everybody else that I have enjoyed over the years.

Oh yes, I have to mention this –  it was my uncle [who is currently in the US] who introduced me to Murakami. He gifted me “The Elephant Vanishes” and thus began my love for Murakami. I have all his books [except 1 or 2] and these are books that I will not lead to anybody nor give away.

When we moved towns, I made sure my books came along with us and the last big move was from Tirunelveli to Chennai. I remember it was dad and gramma who packed up the house [ mom was in Chennai, having just delivered my sister, and dad dropped me off in Chennai as well]. Among our stuff were 3-4 giant boxes of books. I got glaze and stares from everybody saying this is too much and we have no idea if we have enough shelf space to store them all in our new apartment.

I refused to part with my books, I would get upset whenever mom lent a book to a cousin/uncle/friend. In most cases, the books never came back..  Even after I moved into my grandparent’s house, my books remained at my parent’s apartment, and every now and then mom would comment about how they were just sitting there. I did not react or comment. One day, I just went over and brought them all back in a big carton box, subsequent to which I started giving them away to libraries that would take them.  I think it was 2012-13 when I made peace with myself and told myself “I have enjoyed the books and now it’s time for somebody else to enjoy them” and that’s when I started doing the whole read and pass on.

A friend and I initiated this concept called “the attic” where we invited people to come and drop off books they were wanted to give away or sell and we also invited people who were willing to come and check them out and give them a new home so it worked for a while but then she moves cities and that kind of ended there.. it was such fun and we enjoyed meeting people old and new.

In 2012 when I moved out into an apartment of my own I had a spare bedroom which literally converted into a reading room I carried with me all the books I had your nearly 200 of them and arrange them from device and I had affair in that room and I would sit and read or anybody who came home is also welcome to sit and read them but then when I was moving out in 2015 I realized it was time to move on it was time to say bye to some of them books friend want to take a whole bunch of them to give a tour library so I said ok and parted with them I gave a quite a bit to other friends who want to read and donated quite a few to libraries.

Since then I am not going to say I have not bought a single book or got a book as a gift I did and now I have a pile of about 30-40 books that I wish to give away or sell and the books that I want to keep her about 40 or 50 and these are across genres and of course they include the entire Murakami collection of mine.

Along this entire journey of mine, I made some amazing friends and the only thing common between us were books we read we share we exchange, titles we make recommendations, we laugh we share and basically exchange stories every time we were done with a book. 2020 was an amazing year with reference to reading, I must have read over 100 books, including 1 audiobook [audible] that shook me up – A Space of Her Own: Personal Narratives of Twelve Women.

Over the years, I’ve also been a part of quite a few book clubs offline and online [ one on Twitter where they send you a set of books to choose from, you pick one, connect with the author, read and review the book]. But I prefer reading and exchanging notes with a few friends [ offline & on social media]

Yes, over the years I’ve accepted the fact that eBooks are here to stay. I very hesitantly downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and I do to purchase/borrow books within the app and read.. I agree is convenient to have a book on the phone/handheld device. I read when I am in the cab, train, flight, or bus, when at home I do prefer to hold the book and flip through the pages I’ve also tried audiobooks – Storytel and audible. Initially, I did have difficulty focussing, I have grown to enjoy them, especially when and pottering about my room/ doing something on the laptop and the book plays in the background [haven’t tried it with serious books]

Bookstores

Be it in Chennai or in a town am visiting, the first place I look for are ‘Bookstores’. I also love libraries with the same amount of passion… 🙂

In Chennai, my all-time favorite bookstores are Landmark & Higginbothams. Even though Landmark has become a tiny section inside Westside [ the last time I visited Ampa Mall], it holds a special place in my heart. It is where I have spent numerous hours, browsing through books, being lost in the pages, and more. It was located within a short distance from my college and so every day after classes, I would head over there religiously. Sigh.

In Bangalore, I love heading to Church street- Bookworm, Blossoms, Magazines, Gangarams. Uff.. Such joy walking into these places and checking out piles and piles of books. The cool thing is some of them even offer exchanges and discounts on purchases.

An incident I remember from one of my earlier visits to Delhi – I visited about 5 to 6 of bookstores, of which four were in Khan market. Must have easily spent about an hour in each of them – talking to the owners flipping through the collection they had and this one incident stays with me at Bahrisons- a fairly old and amazing book store, I bumped into a mother-daughter duo. They were looking for books to take back to the US to give the girl’s friends. I happened to hear their conversation with the staff and shamelessly chimed in and took them around the store and gave them a bunch of books to pick from and they were ecstatic. The store manager noticed this and gave me a discount on my purchase. small perks of being a bookworm.

Also, make it a point to gift books to friends’ kids [those over 3 years & can read on their own], otherwise, friends would only give me deathly glares for adding to their already packed schedule~

These days I see the ‘trend of buying books’ changing – a lot of people wonder about  Bookstores explore new releases, check out books and titles, then go and order on Amazon or other sites. Well, not complaining, I am happy they are reading/gifting books.

Apart from books, I love picking up stationery, postcards, and other knick-knacks from bookstores. I collect wrapping paper, and bookmarks.. have few pretty ones that I just haven’t taken out of their packaging yet.

Why do people read?

While I was working on this blog post, I put out a question to my friends asking them ‘why they were into books?’ ‘what was exciting about books for them?’.

Most of them said books took them to another world and give them an experience like no other one friend, in particular, said it was his escape from the craziness of life another said she was happy to dive into this world created by somebody else and when the book finally ended she felt like she had just been on a roller coaster ride. Some fun, others not so much.

Why do I read?

I read cos books transport me to a whole new world, sometimes I can relate to it, and other times it’s completely New. I love exploring new authors, new genres and at the end of the book, I do ponder about what might have prompted the author to write this, or what if it had a different ending.. I don’t read reviews before picking up a book, I have sometimes picked up books cos the cover art was interesting, sometimes it paid off, other times well less said better.

I love books that make you think, make you smile, make you laugh, and transport you to a different world.. A book I got for my birthday is something I LOVE… it is The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy>
Do check it out.. you will love it~

What’s my reading style – I read in the morning with my cuppa coffee/tea, I read between work, I read at night before zzz..I like to sit outside on our front porch and read, with Floppy by my side, or on the bed/floor, lying on my stomach. If I am reading on the phone, you will find me lying on my side. I always use a bookmark – it could be anything from a receipt to the boarding pass, or an actual bookmark. I hate it when people fold the edges of the page or leave the book open on the table/bed.

Would also like to add this before I publish the post…
Proud to share that I know a few published authors, one happens to be a good friend – Deepti [The Hauntup]. I know how much effort went into the book, from the day she began writing it till it got published.  Kudos to her, looking forward to her next one. Another friend of mine- Partha, has written & published a few chapters of his upcoming book on his blog [quite gripping and has us all on the edge of our seats], so that is a book I’m really looking forward to.. hope you are reading this Senor. 😉

I have had an idea for a book forever, but am yet to get started. Call it fear of actually putting pen to paper or lack of confidence, but I sure hope to get around to it soon.. Or I might change direction and write about something else altogether.. let’s see.. For now, off to finish, the book am reading, its called “I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel”

So, are you into reading/audiobooks? when did you start reading and what’s your journey been like? what do you reading right now??

“What is reading but silent conversation?” ~ Walter Savage Landor

Here is an interesting article you should read – Neuroscience explains the astonishing benefits of reading books like a writer—even if you don’t plan on becoming one