I miss good conversations. About books.
One of my earliest memories is of vivid conversations about books. My paternal grandmother was a teacher and an avid reader. She was the one who made me fall in love with the art of reading. One thing I remember she told me, “don’t just read, talk about it”. Discussions and conversations about what we were reading were always encouraged.
At school, I always found someone who loved to read and talk about what they read. Of course, at the time I didn’t know, the cooler name for such activity was called a “Book Club”. I just knew I liked to read and I liked to talk about it.
I think the Harry Potter series was a blessing. More people started reading and discussing. During my 11th and 12th standards I used to have competitions with a friend, who can finish the new books first. Because, spoilers! I mean, of course!
I still have this particular friend in my life and we still talk about books and I am so grateful for that.
College was the time when I think I finally found people who truly appreciated conversations about books. I was pursuing my bachelor’s in English Literature and of course reading books was part of the requirement. I mean it was not really a rule but it was assumed a literature student would read.
I had a friend at the time who loved to read. I mean LOVED. We would spend hours discussing every mundane detail of life and what we read, what we felt when we read it and dissect every element of it. Ahh, those were the good old days.
My professors were also a big reason why I spent all my free time reading. They opened up my mind to new genres and new writers, names which were unknown to me before. I think I read a lot more in those 3 years of college than I have in the past 5 years.
This brings me to the current times. I still read. I still have a few conversations with friends or colleagues here and there. But, none satisfy the bookworm in me.
Work-life and laziness have taken over the adult life. A friend and I are admins to a Facebook book club where we are supposed to have many dialogues on books. But, we both are so engrossed with life and its many twists and turns, we barely make our presence felt there. (hey, at least we make sure the annual secret Santa gift exchange happens where gifts are exclusively only books)
I miss those days when I could simply sit with my grandmother or a friend and talk about why a certain character did what it did and what the writer must have been thinking when they used a certain word.