My Faithful Companion
After many months, I got to meet one of my close friends over the weekend. Work had been hectic and I was glad and eagerly looking forward to this break! 😊 We met at the M.G. road metro station and then from there walked to Museum Road and lunched at one of the restaurants. We caught up on all the news and also cribbed and laughed about things… as any two close friends would do. On our way back to the M.G. road metro station, we stopped for coffee and chatted some more. There was still time left for me to head home, my husband said he would pick me up. Both my friend and me being book lovers decided to visit Higginbothams, one of the oldest and most loved book stores of all times!
The smell of books as we entered the store was Heaven!! It immediately took me down memory lane….my sister and me as teenagers and young adults on our regular trips to book stores — Landmark, Higginbothams, Premier Book store, Blossoms book store — absolute paradise for book lovers!!! 😊 We would usually go on Saturdays, borrow or buy more than a dozen books and literally devour (not literally of course😉) it over the weekend! We were voracious readers. It was such bliss! A good book to read, a hot cup of coffee or cocoa, snuggled up in my room…Aah… life couldn’t get better than this…!
However, when I was browsing through the books this time with my friend, I realized that unlike earlier I did not have any clear favourites. I used to love reading either Mills & Boons, Psychological Thrillers, Drama, and even real crime stories. However, now as I’ve grown older, my taste in books has changed as well…my liking now is for stories of real-life struggle (especially women), self-help, family (fiction & non-fiction) women in travel, (which is a complete surprise to me, as I don’t like travel much and do not have an adventurous streak either!) and a mix of philosophy & real-world wisdom.
The number of authors and books today has increased multi-fold and is quite mind-boggling! However, people actually reading paperbacks/hardcovers has seen a dip compared to my time as a youngster. Given a choice, I would any day go for reading the paper back rather than an e-book. The feel of holding the book, the memories associated with it… too beautiful to capture in words!!
I do read even now.. but with family, work and responsibilities, it’s a challenge to take out time to read a book and that too UNDISTURBED! 😊 But I’ve decided in 2019, will make an earnest effort to read as often as I can.
