Friday, April 1, 2011

Those days, those books...


There was a time I spent my spare time reading.
There was a time I planned, made a list and bought books.
There was a time a sizeable chunk of my salary was dedicated to music cassettes and books. Books, more than cassettes.
There was a time there would be a book in the queue waiting for the first to be read.
There was a time I would put the child to bed early so that I can pull out that book from the bedside and read till my eyes close. The last time I did that was when I sat till 2AM to finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. That was probably the last time as well.

Now? I just can't hold a book long enough to consume its contents. Oh, I do get my amount of spare time. There is no way I can complain of 'lack of time'. In the last couple of years, I bought two books: Chasing the Monsoon in Winter 2009, and The Catcher in the Rye in Summer 2010. I did not get past 3-4 pages of the first and about one-third of the second. They remained at my bedside for weeks, then next to my computer for another few more. Then, I sidelined them to the book-shelf where they still await my touch.

It's alarming. I just can't hold myself down enough to finish a book. There is this pull, call it Gravity if you will, that draws me away. I know it's all about priorities - if I really want to read, I know I can. But these things that need to be done, the things that suffocate me, they are always on the top of the list.

I miss books. Gawd, I miss reading.

3 comments:

  1. Ouch!! You seem to really craving to read and that too a lot.
    Being an adult comes up with its backdrops!
    But wriggling out of the shackles of responsibilities and get some time for urself.

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  2. I miss reading a lot too. reading took a backseat ever since I got into college. I can count the number of books iv read in the last 3 years! It wasnt so in school.. I used to read so much, i would lose the count of books and forget the names too!
    this post reminds me of those days..


    Defiant Princess
    http://khanvibes.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. agree with defiant princess. Med school ruined my reading. But times are changing aren't they. School going kids now get assignments on laptops, schedules on google calendar, kindle, ipad, x,y,z.

    I find solace in reading blogs now..

    ReplyDelete