On Reading

A friend recently prodded to share my favourite reads as part of the #BookListChallenge whereby friends and acquaintances are sharing their 10 most favourite books. I did tell him that my list of good reads is not 'suitable' for sharing, for there are impressionable minds on Facebook.

I haven't really done serious 'book reading' for a while now. Looking back, it is possibly more than a decade now since I read a book in its entirety. It was "Lost Horizon" that I read last, and it has been one of my best reads from among the small number of books I have read. The book was part of our rapid reader curricula in high school.

Contrary to what I might have had you believe, I am actually a voracious reader. I read, read a lot - blogs, magazines, newspapers, technology trends, and just about anything that suits my palate of interests, on the interwebs and in print. I read these at home, at work and during my daily commute to work. I read them in flight, on the bed when I am not sleeping, in the loo, and I read during my lunch hours.

Patience may be the key ingredient missing when it comes to me spending enough time reading a book, cover to cover. I am glad that some of these good books are actually being made into good movies and television soaps, these days. Just have to spend enough time to get the highlights and the best parts of the story. Avid book readers would probably cry blasphemy, but suits me just fine! The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Bourne Series, A Song Of Ice And Fire, The Lord of The Rings, महाभारत, among others, have all seen such wonderful adaptations on screen.

Speaking of lists though, here is a list of my unfinished reads, good books which I have been intending to finish reading, for quite some time now -

1. বাৰেবৰণীয়া অসম (Baareboroniya Axom) - A book on the history, culture and people of Assam, by Dr. Harinath Sharma Doloi (reading since 2006)
2. অনুৰাধাৰ দেশ (Anuradhar Desh) - A romantic Assamese novel by Phanindra Kumar Dev Choudhury (reading since 2006)
3. Game of Thrones - First in a series of 7 books by George R. R. Martin (reading since 2011)
4. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - by Edward Tufte (reading since 2008)
5. The Accidental Prime Minister - by Sanjaya Baru (reading since April 2014)

[Image source: http://0-gate.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/room-of-books.png]

All said and done, this #BookListChallenge is for sure a treasure trove for avid book readers, probably one of the better things out there on Facebook. I would some day want to spend a lot of time in my very own Shangri-la, a room full of books, reading and learning from all the fine books in the world.

In the interim, I'd probably go ahead and participate in some other 'list challenges' which will soon appear on my social media feed - #WorkoutSongsListChallenge, #AndroidAppListChallenge, #NewsWebsiteListChallenge, #PhoneListChallenge, #WhatYouWatchingNowListChallenge, #WebsiteYouSpendHalfYourLifeOnListChallenge, #WhatsInMyLunchListChallenge, et al.

So long, fellow readers. Valar dohaeris. ~~ MT