Reading Room

2012 is a very very special year for me. In many many ways. One of the highlights of this year would be that I started living here for a fair part of my life – here, as Kismitoffeebar.

My life here has come with a lot of perks and reading tops it. Be it reading fellow bloggers’ stories or getting inspired by their book reviews and waiting with bated breath to catch hold of it or getting involved in fun reading challenges (that concept is so new to me!) – I’d say that life’s good 🙂 by God’s Grace!!!!!!!!!!

If you know me, you’d know what I would always place a bet for. Ya, that’s right – a book! Books take you to a world of their own, make it yours and then make it so hard for you to come out of them. I love such escapes for it almost makes it a great travel and a wonderful vacation. It is probably the best way to go vacationing when you cannot physically travel.

There is somehing about books, their smell, their fine print, their dog eared pages, their characters, their stories, their fights, their revolutions, their ability to suck you in…. That one cover that haunts you forever? That one protagonist who made you feel as if you were him? That one poem that made you long for a loved one? That one illustration that made you laugh till your stomach hurt? That preface that touched you like no other? That mesmerising photo of the author’s home on the back cover? That tempting review? That awe-inducing ability of the author to write pages and pages filled with beautiful words by his ability to look outside the window or report events from his locality? That one story that made you feel like it was your life?

Books can touch you in ways more than many.

There have been innumerable times when I have rummaged through papa’s cupboard and those huge solid iron trunks because they are filled with such treasures that I can get lost in them for days and weeks together – medals, swiss army knives, badges, more badges, medals, tea cups, a catapult, small hand notebooks and lots and lots of handwritten notes and many many books! Right from Robin Cook to Charles Dickens to John Grisham to Wodehouse to Robert Ludlum to Mario Puzo and what not! I love love digging into them, unearthing some unseen book or piece of paper and then get right down to business. I guess I started loving reading from that day – the first day I put my little podgy fingers in the trunk and pulled out a book, enchanted and totally in awe.

Right from Tinkle to Enid Blyton to now, I have had my nose buried in books though I never can get enugh of it.  Having all the 7 days of the week designated for only reading would probably still not suffice. Ah well! But all that does make life exciting. Everytime you look at a book shelf in a thrift store or visit that book colony in the most heavenly smelling street (coz’ it only smells of old paper) or are skimming through the neatly stacked book shelves in an air-conditioned book store – the feeling is the same! Euphoria!

I’d love to keep a track of the books I have read, here. From 2012 onwards, I shall be keeping track of the books I have read so far (and can name with the help of my hippocampus) and continue to keep track of them and include them for the challenges completed.

Welcome to my reading room 🙂