Hi guys. Welcome, or welcome back to my blog. Along with being a good cook and a science enthusiast, I am also an avid reader. If there’s one thing that I have done all my life apart from eating and sleeping, it’s reading. Just like a sportsman is always sport for a good game, I, too, am always sport for a good read, be it day or night. And not just me, apparently my family loves reading books too. And I say apparently, because of the sheer number of books in my house. As my grandfather took up painting and philately as hobbies after retiring, he has a little studio of his own. And it is in this studio, that there is a cupboard containing books. But it is no ordinary cupboard. It spans one whole wall of the square room, and goes almost up to the ceiling. I have never counted, but I presume that they must hold at least about four-hundred books. There are books on physics, books on history, anthropology, general knowledge, chemistry, philosophy, etc., in addition to a plethora of novels and encyclopedias, in English, Hindi and Bengali. Therefore, apart from the books from the school library, I also helped myself to the books stocked in the floor – to – ceiling cupboard that makes for our family library.
In my room, there stands a very old teak-wood cupboard. And it is this one, that’s filled with my books. I have been reading and collecting them ever since I first learnt the alphabet (I can read in Hindi, English, Marathi, and French). I actually conducted a mini-census of my own to see how many books I actually owned. The total sum came up to about four hundred and twenty nine! Cool, right? Anyway, I am not a fussy reader, and my collection contains all sorts of books. From comics to classics to novels, you can find them all. But then again, why am I writing this? Why am I telling you guys about this? You will find that answer (if you want to find it, that is) if you will be so kind so as to please continue reading on to the next paragraph.
A lot of the times in school, when I tell my friends that I like to read, they make wry faces and think that I am nerd (I actually am, I admit). But when I ask them about reading, they say it is boring and not entertaining enough. After so many years of thinking (it literally has been years), I came to the conclusion that they just aren’t reading the right book. For example, when you go shopping, there are some clothes that suit you, and some that don’t. In the same way, there are different books that suit your interests. You cannot make a child read and like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, or make an old man a fan of “Harry Potter”. The child won’t be able to understand “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the old man will feel that “Harry Potter” is too childish. So if you give a person a book that suits his or her mindset (for example, fast paced, or funny, or serious), the person will actually like reading it. So what is the solution?
Book reviews. I, on this blog, will be posting in-depth reviews of several books which I have read and will be reading. In the reviews, you will find information about the author, the genre, the main review and many more things that will not only help you make a decision about your next read, but will also tell you whether you will like it, before you buy it. I will try to make the reviews as simple and fun for every body to understand.
I have always considered myself very lucky to be able to own so much of what I love, and I wish to share my knowledge and information with you guys, too. I first thought about starting a small library for the people of my locality, but soon realized that it will not be an easy job (You know, things like not returning the book on time, not returning it in good condition, or not returning it at all). So I decided that will read a book, write a review, and post it online for every body to read. I haven’t started writing a review yet, but it shall come up very soon.
And that’s not all! Apart from reading books, I do like painting or sketching occasionally, and writing stories as well. Although the blog will be focused mainly on book reviews, I will be posting original short stories or some artwork of mine, from time to time. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Do follow my blog if you haven’t already. Stay tuned for more!