How I loved reading

"I have lived a thousand lives and I have loved a thousand loves. I've walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time.

                                 Because I read."   - George R. R. Martin

Reading was something that I never really enjoyed as a child, it was during my pre-teen years that my interest in reading peaked. The first book that I ever read, outside the school syllabus of the course, was The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling, when I was in the 5th grade. 

As, over the years I kept on reading various books, my personality kept on diversifying with the traits of each and every book that I've read. It was never something great, no, it was the little things from in between those lines that my conscience picked without my knowledge.

The one thing I learnt from reading those thick fat novels, is patience. Patience to wait for the ending, for the good part, for good times. The young me had a restless spirit, maybe the present me still has it, but I've learnt to be patient, to wait for good days to come, for in the end, it's time that decides what you gain. Observance is another. Observing my surroundings, people, things, animals, scenes, expressions, sounds, anything and everything. Remembering the observations is the second part, observing is the first. It taught me how to appreciate life and everything around me. Observing your surroundings is like absorbing every essence of it, taking in all the curves and ridges, blending in or trying to blend in with its elements.

Something that I find fascinating about books is how such a small thing can hold huge worlds of imagination that enthral you more than the actual world. I am an extrovert but there’s nothing that I love more than these worlds with the essence of imagination. I can be a part of everything at once or nothing at all if there is a book in my hands and my fingers holding the pages.

I’ve always wanted to work part-time at a library or a bookstore, not because I’d get to read books for free (library yes, definitely not in bookstores), but because I’d get to be around books. Just being around books, feeling their presence, knowing that a whole new world is just in the reach of your hands. In India, one, you won’t find a lot of bookstores, book cafes or libraries littered across many cities, two, the culture of part-time jobs along with studying is not well supported, especially for school students. 

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingertips.”

The more I read, the more the spark of expressing things in me surfaced. There were so many things I needed to express and so limited emotions defined. The unlimited thoughts clouding my mind weren’t imaginary worlds or romantic stories, they were ideas and opinions I needed to express, theories and beliefs I needed to give words to. 

One is a habit developed gradually, another is a talent born late, and both are interests. My prolonged love for reading led to my forte in writing and my desire to do both further and better is the epitome of my interests.

So, no, I don't have any stories or incidents to narrate from my life about my growing interests and talents. There was no specific point of realisation that I enjoyed reading or loved writing, it just happened, like how a seedling grows into a plant, slowly and gradually, for a few years.