Of continuedromance with books

 

 

 

 

 

A visit to the book store to mark the beginning of the year proved to be a great time. Thanks to professional commitments claiming a lot of time, such a rendezvous had become a rarefied activity -- and one longed to take a deep and endearing look at book shelves seeking new titles of authors well known and not so well known. Of course, buying new books is always a pleasure, no matter the cost, but even looking at the books and books and books and soaking in the faint fragrance of fresh books has its own charm -- which the loud-thinker enjoyed to the hilt. BOOK store is a metaphor, so to say, of an innate joy of being with countless numbers of books in colourful covers. Some books are fat and some slim. But every book invites you with open arms -- no matter its content. Such is the attraction of book stores.

 

Each of the countless visits to the book stores across the world over lifetime has evoked only one sentiment in the loud-thinker’s mind -- that he should buy all the books in the store, hundreds of them, thousands of them ... ! And in his mind’s deepest fantasy, the loud-thinker sees himself signing a cheque of the total worth of all the books in the store. Through time -- from childhood to now -- this fantasy has endured. Of course, to some, this is madness per se. But the loud-thinker does not mind being called ‘mad’ when it comes to his love affair with books. For him, books have been his dear friends, near friends, sheer friends ! He cannot imagine his life without reading of books. And in his parlance, ‘books’ means books on paper. He has his digital book-store also with literally hundreds of books stored for reading anytime. Yet, that medium does not hold enough attraction. For, when the light comes from behind the screen, the eyes are strained forbidding long reading sessions.

 

With books on paper, reading sessions stretch for hours -- especially on Sundays or holidays. Otherwise, too, nights are the time for books -- and reading sessions stretch for 3-4 hours habitually. On week-days, too, books often claim a few hours on a daily basis. However, as the previous year wound to a close, the loud-thinker’s visits to the book store -- any book store -- had become rather sparse for no specific reason. True, books kept getting added to the personal library, all right. Yet, the loud-thinker missed going to the book store for the sheer romance of it. As the year 2026 began, therefore, he resolved to overcome his lethargy and start visiting books and buying those in good numbers. During the Sunday visit to the book store last week, the loud-thinker met some of his old friends -- of course book-lovers -- and the camaraderie glowed in its bright hue. What a community it happens to be -- fabulous (belonging to fables, the stories of gods), fantastic (as if in a dream-land), charming in every which the way. Thankfully, there still are many, many, many such people round! Wow !