Say Something bookish!

I have always given book recommendations to friends and cousins, even strangers I've met at bookstores or during train journeys who have approached me after seeing books in my hands. So, it's still always amazing when I hear my newly-acquainted-with-reading-and-loving-it friend to thank me and share her book buys via text messages. It gives me immense pleasure to go back into my memories and relive the happiness of our shared book reads. 

Having spoken to a number of readers, mostly women, I have come to a conclusion that women tend to read more classics and go by reading lists recommended by book sharing websites than men do. It is slightly oddball that there is a category called Women's Fiction but none that is called Men's Fiction. I wonder why? Also, the fact that women tend to keep a track of other books mentioned in novels or generally note down a list of books in fiction and memoirs gives a perspective on the reading patterns of men and women. A few years ago, when I was in college and smitten with the American Library bookshelves, the librarians working in shifts would usually notice me lingering for way too long on their computer catalogues and often interrupted me with requests for help. I loved browsing through the meticulously arranged online book catalogues that also gave multiple book suggestions based on say Art biographies next would be Architecture and everything else related to it, even extending to topics on Beauty and Aesthetics. I can never forget that entire amazing experience of getting to know about so many different books by an array of writers not just American, but Mexican, Latin, Spanish and African ancestries. I was quite convinced that I will always be reading the entire first floor section at least twice. Once during my Architecture Thesis, I wanted a few articles from LIFE magazine published in 1955 and I spoke to the librarian about it. Within my next visit to the library in a week, she gave me photocopies of the said articles secured from their Delhi Consulate Library and did not even charge me for it. That was one of the most remarkable days in my reading life and one that convinced me of the intrinsic goodness of librarians, libraries and people who treasured reading. 

Throughout January this year, I have met some varied readers on an online platform of book sharing. They meet once in a month and share their current and favourite reads and also exchange books. I have seen people stuck on the same book for months and then finally, abandoning it only to pick it months later and finish it in a jiffy. I have heard endless tales of the most recommended books turning into reading nightmares for some of them. Always stories to share, tales to tell and laughter to indulge in these conversations. I have especially realised that I like knowing details about a person's reading. The way someone spends months reading a mammoth Vikram Seth and drifts away eventually or get by slowly through a Man Booker Prize book, and rereads certain classics regularly, recommends translated works of poetry speaks volumes about people. It is not a surprise at all to find passionate readers who immerse themselves into written words with a dedication that they perhaps not put into their life at times. I have always looked forward to letting books speak to me and somehow somebody recommending books through their affection for the stories and characters makes me an easy fan of such people. I also love people whose faces light up with smiles and recognition upon the mention of books they love and cherish as much as I do. Such conversations have been the most productive and meaningful splurging of words I've done in my limited social life. Always wonderful to see people connecting for a shared love of reading. May our tribe grow by leaps and bounds and may we find each other in forgotten nooks and corners of bookstores and secondhand bookshops, whichever way leads us to them and finding each other. Amen.