I Never Read Non-Fiction, Almost…

Non-fiction is the dark sheep of my reading expeditions. Biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, self-help books etc. are never picked up by me from the shelves, apart from gifting purposes.

Not that I never tried reading them, or haven’t ever read them. But beyond a few pages, I start yawning and can’t seem to focus. My heart and soul wanders away and I long to pick up a work of fiction as soon as possible.

Such is my condition.

Till date, the only non-fiction works that I read (and remember) are :

• You Can Win by Shiv Khera
• Who Moved My Cheese
• The Diary Of Anne Frank (Read it numerous time)
• Timepass by Protima Bedi
• Letters from a father to a daughter
• Ogilvy on Advertising

And I guess that’s all.

I am still figuring out the WHY of non-fiction aversion. And I have concluded that it is because of the fact –

• If I can learn it from a story, why read someone else’s account?
• Self-help never motivates me and I find it to be a bit “preachy”. I don’t like being “preached”.
• I feel lost. Every single time I pick up a non-fiction work. Sometimes, I feel I am losing my identity and questioning everything when I read excerpts. Whereas, I am overall a very optimistic person who never compares and contrasts her life with others. So, no.
• I can’t visualise anything when I read a work of non-fiction! I can’t imagine a scenario where person X and person Y meet at an office and then person Y becomes the bigshot and blah. No. Not happening. Give me names! Give me imaginary setups please.

Having said that, I believe that I have learnt more from Harry Potter or The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants than from a Men are from Mars. I learn more from Jodi Picoult and Jhumpa Lahiri than the who’s who of non-fiction world.

I know I am biased, but this is how I function. Hopefully, I do aim to read more non-fiction in the coming days (one book is already shortlisted), but I am not promising that I won’t wander off! 😉

What about your equation with non-fiction works? Suggestions are most welcome.

 

 

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The Captain Didn’t Abandon The Ship

Source: Pexels

Yes. I know. I know.

It has been ages and this blog is gathering dust and cobwebs and all that.

But trust me, I was busier than the busiest. Still am.

The Captain didn’t abandon ship though.

Stay tuned for a revamped site with a new twist.

That’s all folks.

🙂

 

 

The Mills and Boons Story of the Unexpected Kind!

NOTE: I know you all must be confused as to why I am posting old posts now? Well, these are posts from my erstwhile blog (sounds so royal) and I have had people read them last year. But to my new readers, these are fresh posts and I don’t want them to miss out on any book related posts 🙂 So I will be re-posting random blogs, which some of you might have already read.

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Not very long ago, my friend visited a quaint little bookstore in Allahabad, UP. She mentioned that she was really surprised at the sight of the store selling all sorts of new and pre-owned books and that too at hefty discounts. Being a booklover bookhogger, she dashed straight towards it like a Zombie in search of brains or Vampire in search of fresh blood 😛 😉

She bought all those books that I promptly forgot the names…and talked to me animatedly over the phone like a little child clutching treasures in her hands. What she also added was this incident at the store, where a group of local chaps were circling around the store and obviously, they were not there for the books! Guess what, they ended up cornered in the “Mills and Boons section” in the store. 😛

X: Arey…yeh dekho…yeh badhiyaa books hain. Tumne padhi hai? (See the books? These are excellent. Have you read them? )

Y: Bilkul padhi hai. Badi achchi hoti hai. Main aksar khareedta rehta hu yehi se.(Of course I have! These are awesome. I keep on buying them from this store)

X: Haan…yeh wali “insert any M&B book name”. Yeh badhiya hai. (yes..this one..this is great!)

Y: Bilkul. Aur yeh bhi. (yes..and this one as well) picks up another one from the counter 

My friend and another girl were by this time making payments to the shopkeeper. Both of them glanced at one another and could barely suppress the fits of laughter. Because they knew that obviously, the guys had no clue about M&B and it was doubtful that whether they had read any other book as well!

Suddenly,  the other girl spoke up – loudly, so that the “booklovers” could hear her.

“Nice books na…? Girls read them a lot but the numbers are dwindling day by day!!”

To which, my friend replied (with a fictional answer made on the spot) “Yeah…my fifteen year old niece is a die-hard fan. I recently bought some for her.” (her niece is a toddler of barely two years 😛 )

The store keeper couldn’t resist laughing out loudly and the chaps…they quietly moved away from the M&B section and eventually fled the store. 😀

Things that people do for making an impression on strangers !! 😉

P.S. I do not want to state that M&B reading is a girly thing or that guys can’t read it, through the post. It is just to highlight what happens a lot around us in the name of “being cool” or to “impress” chicks 😛

Utterly Nonsensical Reasons Why I Refuse To Read Some Books After Page 1

NOTE: I know you all must be confused as to why I am posting old posts now? Well, these are posts from my erstwhile blog (sounds so royal) and I have had people read them last year. But to my new readers, these are fresh posts and I don’t want them to miss out on any book related posts 🙂 So I will be re-posting random blogs, which some of you might have already read.

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Dear Writers Of Books I Wanted To Read But Couldn’t,

I am a reader. I want to be an voracious reader once more and I do have the potential in my bones you know. But I can’t. I can’t just go beyond page #1 even though I try hard to !!!! I will not blame you because I do understand. This is why, it is I who is on the wrong side of things. The reasons are nonsensical.

The names seem fake: Some authors (I won’t reveal) love naming their characters as if they are going to name their future brood of kids. Exotic names. Really really exotic names. Now it can be understood that some names do suit the character and the setting. But puhleeeseee….sometimes they just stick out like a purple tongue. Okay, if the name is short and fairly simple, I can still proceed a bit. But lengthy names with cropped idiotic shortened nicknames…I am sorry. I can’t relate to your story at all.

Beating round the bush: Of late, I tend to close a book the moment I find that the author is doing nothing but beating round the bush. Unnecessarily. I read this book in train while going to Chennai and because I had no other backup option to entertain me, I had to struggle through it. The author was just going on and on about things that kicked me into a different universe every now and then. Bumpy ride. Ouch!! Brain-hurt alert!!

Bad endings: I am kind by nature. I happen to finish some books if I really go beyond page 1 through 30. Only to find that the author has stabbed me at the back with his/her pen ruthlessly. How? By penning a bad ending. Not cliffhanger kind of endings you see. But confusing, meaningless endings. Sometimes the endings seem to be torn out of a totally different book! What hurts more is that I lose hope of reading another book of the same type in the future.

Desperate Indian writers: Taking a cue from one of the so called bestselling authors, some Indian writers have totally gone berserk in churning out “Bestsellers” or you can say, cheap novels that cost about a hundred INR or so. I occasionally pick one or two up out of curiosity and to check how similar they are in terms of plot line and language. They never disappoint me. These are the books, I gladly give away to Fans of such Literature. Here is an article that will speak more than I can in ten such write-ups.

Not doing justice to the genre: A crime novella that looks more like an Indian daily soap’s sob story. A horror story that tickles the funny bone on a dark and stormy night. A story about bromance without any signs of the same. A supernatural creature novel that gives you goosebumps and cold sweats by thinking how could this trash get published. Brr….

Parting note –  I have taught school kids of grade 3 and 4. They are better writers.

Which Book Has Inspired You/Changed You And How?

NOTE: I know you all must be confused as to why I am posting old posts now? Well, these are posts from my erstwhile blog (sounds so royal) and I have had people read them last year. But to my new readers, these are fresh posts and I don’t want them to miss out on any book related posts 🙂 So I will be re-posting random blogs, which some of you might have already read.

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Was going through Buzzfeed, where there is a list of books that have changed people’s lives. Now I wonder which of the books have changed me as a person or have inspired me.

I would say that in my case, books are 99% inspiration/motivation and 1% agents of change 😉 So, here is my list of books that have made me what I am today:

• Enid Blyton Malory Towers and St.Clare’s. Made me work hard at school and taught me lessons in friendship.
• Harry Potter. A no-brainer and a staple in all book lists. It was the connection to me and my two besties. We speak in Harry Potter you know!! (Check this post I couldn’t resist placing here)
• The Diary Of Anne Frank. Still makes me think. 😦
• The Boy In Striped Pajamas. Makes me numb in knees. Its a recent addition, but had a real big impact on my psyche.
• Pride and Prejudice. Made me read more of Austen and the Bronte sisters and thus, improved my English.
• Oliver Twist. I realised that I can’t stand injustice of any sort.
• Kusum. It was an NBT book and taught me about child labour. A must-read to know the nuances.
• A Thousand Splendid Suns. I read it first and then the Kite Runner. Followed by the Mountains Echoed. But it will be one of the books I can read from any page. And fall in love with it over and over and thought that if the protagonists could, I could too.
• The Penultimate Safari. Nadime Gordimer’s story took me to Africa and the civil war torn nation. Made me thankful for living in much better conditions.
• A Gathering Light. All those pseudo feminists out there…read this.
• Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants. Made me realise that characters are based on real life people such as my besties 😀
• A Golden Age and The Namesake/The interpreter of Maladies/Unaccustomed Earth. Made me feel more Bengali than anyone else could.

Special Mention: Shitty Indian Novels. Made me realise if they can exist, I can always be the second worst writer 😛 Hahahha

You tell me, which books have left their imprints on you?

Haiku On Knowledge

Knowledge can be art
Learning the ways of the world
Also unlearning some

My Preciousssssssss

Favourite Pair

I Need A Help Here….

There was this story I read in a book as a child. It was Bengali translation of World’s best stories such as The Old Man and The Sea, The Good Earth, Mother, Hunchback Of Notre Dame among others. As you might already know by now, I do not have a great memory when it comes to remembering details of any book I read. The point is, I read this wonderful story in that book. The name of the story, unfortunately I do not remember. 😦 I have turned the pages of my memory upside down and here is what I remember. Please help me out, if you can and find out the name of the story/book for me.

• Memory 1: The story is about this man, who makes a piece of infertile land on a mountain side fertile. He toils hard, really hard.
• Memory 2: The man has a wife, who bears him two sons.
• Memory 3: One of the sons flees and then returns, takes his share of property/money. Other son follows the footsteps of his father and toils hard.
• Memory 4: The currency mentioned in the book as I remember is Krones. But then, many countries have Krones as their currency.
• Memory 5: There is a mention of a mountain, which divides two countries. This is where I went crazy because….the country can be any of the Krone using countries. Norway, Sweden, Denmark. My Geography knowledge is…..not worth mentioning here.

This is going to haunt my memory a long long time. 😦 If you happen to find out any leads on this, please let me know here. If you have any friends in these countries and have the slightest chance of knowing it, pass on the message if you can..

Haiku On School Days

Summing my school days:
Satchel, Studies, Sports and the Stage
Basking in glory

Haiku On Silence

Those who speak the most
Sometimes they too do desire
Silence at its peak

Haiku: Before It Is Too Late

Time is running out
And you are sitting pretty
On a pile of files

OMG Facts That I Read Here And There…

Sourced from this link here, a fact that will bring a twinkle in the eyes of book lovers. 🙂

LEWIS AND J.R.R. TOLKIEN WERE IN A WRITING GROUP CALLED THE INKLINGS.

Yes. They were both working on their respective novels – Narnia and LOTR.

Yes. They met and discussed about writing.

What pure  literary delight ❤