Books... Reading...

I read the GODFATHER – Mario Puzo yet again this time… finished it yesterday… that’s like the 7th or 8th time that I am reading it…!! It’s just simply amazing!!

I buy a lot of books. In that sense, I am a collector. But I don’t buy it just for the sake of having a collection. I simply love BOOKS. I think they‘re the greatest escape route when you want to relieve yourself of stress, boredom, frustration, or just leisure… (I have 2 escape routes ;-) – dancing and reading!). My friends ask me why I buy books when I can go to a library and choose to read them. Well, I only buy those books by authors that I enjoy. And I don’t read them just once. I read them over and again.

Ah, that’s another thing… they ask me why I read the same book over and again and what is the thrill in reading a book when you already know what the ending is… that’s not the point is it… :-)

Every time I read a book over and again I find something new in it. Maybe some instance that I skipped over the first time I read it. Maybe some nuance about a character that did not strike me when I read it first. Maybe a better understanding of what the story is about. Something or the other always comes up… and that’s what makes the ‘umpteenth-time’ reading a lot more interesting. Simple logic, the first time you read a book, maybe you are in a hurry to finish the book, get to the ending, see how the finish is all about, and therefore maybe you end up doing a haphazard reading. Of course I am not telling that every single person who reads does that but most do. And there are of course some who just jump right to the ending to figure it out instead of reading through the book. (That’s one of the habits that irritate me!). But coming back to the point, the second time you pick up the book and read it, you’ll do it more slowly taking your own time now that you know what the ending is… :-)

So for me buying books is quite a worthwhile hobby :P

Ah yes! Coming back to the habits ;-) apart from the ‘jumping-to-end-to-know-it’, there are some other stuff that irritate me as well with regard to books… making ‘dog-ears’ in the books (for those who did not get it, it means folding the top corner of the book to mark the page you were reading!), and keeping the book inverted which can damage the spine of the book…!!! Why treat them like this? A little bit of care taken can go a long way when it comes to keeping the books safe and sound…

Well… that turned out to be quite a passionate declaration of how much books and reading mean to me… did not quite think it would turn out this way :-)