What To Read and What Not To Read

                                                                                   Whenever I am in a big town or city, I prefer to go to bookshops and spend some time with the newly arrived books, which carry the smell of fresh papers and ink. Sometimes I sincerely and secretly wish I could have more time and more money to buy and read all these enticing books, which come in beautiful jackets with interesting cover designs. When I was in bookstore recently, very analytically, I was going through the rows of books of eminent writers and soliloquizing how dedicatedly and persistently they did their job to produce masterpieces, which retain their interest for the readers till today. My reading started with Dennis Robin’s novels, which were circulated regularly among friends in college days, and after some time slowly I moved to Sidney Sheldon, a bigger version. One day my father seeing me with one of those novels expressed his displeasure and told me not to indulge in such books and waste time. He used to read at least eighteen hours a day after his retirement. Since he himself was a voracious reader, we had a very good sizable library at our home in those days and that library consisted of English and Kannada literature extensively. Nearly for fifteen years after his retirement, he read eighteen hours a day. Books were his best friends and kept him busy and happy until his end.

 Now I have realized what serious reading is all about. Since I have realized the merits of serious reading, I have cursed my father many times, wished he should have been more elaborate, and explained me then what serious reading meant by, so that I would have spent my time more constructively. After that incident, I started reading serious literature by authors like Dostoyevsky, Thomas Hardy, Emily Bronte, Oscar Wilde and others, as I was a literature student then. To be honest,even then, I was not into serious reading.

Now I have realized how important it is to have the knowledge of history, psychology, philosophy, literature and all the other subjects, as all are interlinked. To have in depth knowledge, it is necessary to select the right books and arrange our time schedules in disciplined manner to indulge into the books constructively. After two-three persistent readings, these books reveal the secrets, for that need discipline and patience on the reader’s side.  While going through Plato's and Aristotle’s philosophy I remember my father’s words and regret my inability to read between the lines then.

   

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