Books Will Never Die!

A book is a gift you can open again and again— Garrison Keillor

How did you start reading…?

If you ever aspire to master that one special skill which makes your life easy, happy, successful and meaningful, it is the habit of playing with alphabets. Believe me, it is the acquired ability to get a taste for reading and understanding that literally marked the progress of your life. So we are happy to read something always, eh…?

I could remember the best of my childhood times are with the books, always, be it a comic, science fiction, movie script, novel or philosophy… I still remember the faces of the people and the scenic places I have created in my own world while travelling through the pages… I could forget everything while reading, still remember that reading…

Remember the first book you ever read after struggling to read a full sentence or a full stanza? Perhaps, more relevant question will be, about the last book you read… Thanks to Covid-19, we are back to the books, at least as e-prints and html…

Who cares for books…?

Reading statistics shows a tremendous decreasing trend during the last few decades. An average US adult spends only 16.8 minutes a day in 2017 compared 228 minutes in 2005. An average Aus guy spends about 54 minutes a day for reading. Be proud that India tops the list with an average reading time of 94 minutes a day. I am sure this won’t tell the entire story, but let’s believe that reading is still alive! At least it indicates an increasing taste for reading books… And lockdown must have accelerated it, no doubt!

Women read more than men…! Surprised? Oh, may be men are busy in writing! The statistics says its more habitual for the kids and the elderly group. Just curious to know whether they included the research scholars in the survey…! Perhaps, the source of inspiration for getting a taste for reading may not be a criteria for these surveys!

Book Market Boon

Yes, people are purchasing more and more books nowadays. The market is on the top gear for the audio-books where the youngsters can enjoy the reading with their smart-phones. We sincerely hope that they do get the real taste for reading! And people do re-read a lot of books! The most re-read books are quite obvious to guess…

• The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The various Sherlock Holmes stories and novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Basically everything by Toni Morrison.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

and the list goes on…

Well, what about your thesis…?

My Favorite Reading Quotes

• There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book. —Frank Serafini
• When you learn to read you will be born again…and you will never be quite so alone again. —Rumer Godden
• To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. —Victor Hugo
• Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. —Richard Steele
• A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. —Mark Twain

I could have added some more, but it warns me of the rising similarity index!!!

Of course, you can easily find much better quotes about reading on the transparent glassy walls of the Learning Centre of BIT… I used to visit this gorgeous library quote often (sometimes even multiple times in a day) till the lockdown. But, perhaps, for something else, not for reading, unfortunately!

How to get a taste to read?

It’s hard to find anyone not interested to read. Our childhood days started with a fight for newspaper and ended with ecstatic narrations of super-glorious heroes (and heroines) from scriptures… and continued in the dreams…

If at all you are not afraid of being called as a “bookworm”, keep rushing to your library…

The reasons are many, as experts analyze, and we do feel…

• It develops your mind… the best exercise! and MUST for a kid! No worries, we are all kids!
• It develops your imagination… free to build your own paradise! May be ought to take a precaution, for not getting lost in that paradise!
• It helps you to discover many new things… I definitely agree… [Thanks Google:)] But letters reveal meanings in multiple levels!
• It makes you young… not just feel so… reading reduces your age! [Read positively; Think positively!]
• It helps you to be healthy… physically, mentally, spiritually!

Can Research Articles be Enjoyed?

For anyone who’s done a sincere attempt of literature review surely weeps inside for killing his/her time in chewing the unpalatable, dry speculations of unknown scientific hypotheses with unclear arguments… Believe me, it is not so easy to get a taste for reading research articles unless one is deeply focused or mostly, badly compelled. The real tone of a typical speculative articulation, that too in a dead passive voice literally makes you cry though it explains the findings of wonderful innovations in the past.

I would say, it’s better to read literature written in the native language (if possible, by a native speaker, or someone very close)… hmm, that sounds better!

As the academic world expects teachers to be researchers and students to be research scholars, it is very important to develop a taste for reading and writing literature reviews. Therefore, it is a good practice to keep reading the snippets and sort out the sweeter ones before attempting to chew them or swallow them.

Happy Reading to all…

Hope you got some taste for reading…

We will see some more interested stuff in this topic in the upcoming issues…

Do post your reviews…