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My dad introduced me to the world of books when I was very young, though I couldn’t read at that time. He used to bring me heaps of fairy tales and picture books from his every visit to the nearby city. Being a collector of things from a young age, I treasured the books dearly and pored over the beautiful illustrations for hours, the words luringly dancing before my eyes. As I grew up, the words steadied and I started reading. It was love at first read and I haven’t stopped loving to read since then.

The village where I lived had only one stationery cum bookshop but their small collection itself was a treasure of great Hindi and English books such as The Arabian Nights, Tales of Tenali Raman, Panchatantra, Jataka Tales, and magazines for children like Champak and Nandan. Later on, I even got a membership to the library in the nearby city, traveling there every two or three months and checking out the books even after paying fines. It was the same time I’d started being curious about Nature – collecting stones, seashells, plants, and flowers, watching nature documentaries, and making notes on them (I still have those notebooks!). So it was natural that I’d read books on nature too and that I did amply, poring over illustrated books on plants and birds, and copying out the sketches and notes in my aforesaid notebooks (That’s how an introvert enjoys quality time!).

Somewhere along the road though, my reading habit started thinning out, mostly due to high school work. But, I don’t remember that phase much, because as soon as high school was over and university not being too hectic (yeah, it luckily wasn’t for me!), I picked up reading again and in earnest. I started exploring more, reading on varying topics, starting from young-adult novels, adventures, moving to mystery, crime, and science fiction, some famous classics, I read them all. Eventually, I moved to my sister’s self-help and biography collections and started reading serious natural history books, and all of them were equally addicting to read. Around that time, I started my Goodreads page too because I love maintaining lists. So if you are interested in which books I’ve read so far, you can check the lists there, though the lists don’t contain many local books I’ve read.

These days, due to time constraints, I’ve limited my reading time to lesser but more meaningful books (meaningful to me at least) which mostly includes natural history, classics, and magical realism, but now and then, it’s no harm to pick some out of the way book, just because. But, reading has become a crucial part of who I am and so no matter how little I do it, I can’t do without reading at all.

And so that’s how my reading journey began. Do you love reading too? What’s your story? Do share it with me in the comments below. I’d love to read it! 😀

My 2024 Reading List

Some recent book reviews

• Book Musings: A House for Mr. BiswasOctober 18, 2023
  Once in a while, I come across a book that gives me hangover for days after finishing it. One such book is the first work of V.S. Naipaul – A House of Mr. Biswas. I had bought it almost three years ago but I kept putting off reading it because I thought it would be tedious to read almost 500 […]
• Agatha Christie DaySeptember 15, 2023
  I started reading Agatha Christie about 12 years ago when I had bought N or M? from my hometown’s old and famous bookshop, Good Books. I had picked it up on a whim not knowing what to expect. I had heard of Agatha Christie vaguely but I had not read any of her books before. I am glad I did […]
• The Birds by Daphne du MaurierApril 12, 2023
  I had read about this story somewhere earlier and had kept a tab in my mind to read it later. Needless to say, the tab was lost and I forgot. Until yesterday – when I was reading a newspaper article about how this story had predicted future (our present) environmental crisis 70 years ago. So, I decided to give it […]
• 75th Year of Independence of IndiaAugust 10, 2022
  I recently finished reading the first book of Partition Trilogy by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, Lahore. While I did not like the book for certain reasons (maybe I should write a review? Ah well…), with our 75th Independence Day coming in just a couple of weeks, I am glad I picked up this book (definitely not realising its connection to the […]
• L.M. Montgomery – Some thoughtsJune 7, 2022
  If there is one author whose works I can read over and over again, it’s definitely L.M. Montgomery. So, naturally, I have read and re-read Anne of Green Gables series several times. But, I’ve also read many of her other novels, short story collections – of which, Emily of New Moon series is probably the next best after Anne series […]
• Book Review – The Nutmeg’s CurseJanuary 24, 2022
  3 / 5 stars. Amitav Ghosh does not need an introduction. His fiction and non-fiction works are equally engaging. I have read most of his books and I was equally excited to have picked this one up. But, I found it a bit disappointing. Here’s why. The first few chapters are of repetitive content as if the author wants to […]