Let me start with my first passion which is reading. I just love reading. I can read the whole day without a single break and I used to do this a long time back. I don’t know how I started reading. In my school there was a library and we could take a book every week. I used to spend my break time running to the library so that I had the time to take a new book and return the old one. I think I have read almost all of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. And I remember hiding the library book inside my school text book so I could read without my mother finding out. I have rarely stayed awake late into the night to study. But there have been so many times when I just couldn’t go to sleep without finishing what I was reading. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
The first major book I read after all those Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys was Jeffrey Archer’s The Eleventh Commandment. My cousin introduced me to this and I just fell in love with Jeffrey Archer’s style of writing. I have read all his books and I think I have most of his books in my collection. I even got to meet him while he was promoting his book in Bangalore. And I got an autographed book. How cool is that!
There was a break in my reading during my college days. It was difficult to find a book and I wasn’t into buying them either. All this changed when I started my job in Bangalore. During those days I used to have a minimum of 3-4 books beside my pillow. Most of my friends at the PG used to read. So there was never any lack of books. And of course there was Crossword. They had this huge bookstore near MG Road complete with chairs and sofas to relax and read. So many of my weekends were spent there. That’s when I started buying books to read. In Bangalore you can always find books for Rs 100 on the streets. I tried them but was never satisfied reading those. The same goes for e-books. Of course when there was nothing else I used to download and read. But they could never keep me hooked for long. I don’t know how to explain this but the original books have a different feel to them. The phrase can’t wait to turn the pages starts to make complete sense.
I started reading books by Vince Flynn completely by accident. Consent to Kill was the first book I read by him. Whenever I read his books, I feel like I’m watching an action filled Hollywood movie. That’s how good his books are. And I do have an overactive imagination while reading. So that helps too!
After my son was born, I stopped reading again. I was in Muscat at the time. I didn’t have the time and couldn’t find any books either. This was when I mostly read online. After coming to Qatar, I restarted on my reading a little. Every year they have an International Book Fair and I used to buy 2-3 books at the most. When I go for my vacation to India, I buy 3-4 books from Bangalore. This was the most that I read in the last few years. But then the best thing happened.
Wait for my next post to find out what changed.
