The other after this post, I have received not much but about 50 e-mails. Some people have suggested some real good things while some have made me feel good by saying how much they liked my work. Some of them have also criticized my writing and have given me some suggestions.
One of my readers has actually made my day by letting me know that my blog is a part of his morning coffee… I was touched. While out of the 50 mails; there was one e-mail by a reader who is not on WordPress (unfortunately – or else would have linked her blog). Her name is Kavita and she said she likes my blog a lot and for her it’s like I am writing her heart out. Well yeah actually my blog is a blog about ‘That girl sitting next to you’…
Kavita’s mail was quite impressive. And she suggested me to write on a topic and she also gave me an idea to get over the writer’s block. She asked me to write about the collection of books/novels I have. I always wanted to write about it; well today’s a good time to write about it as it’s a Reader’s Choice.
Apart from food and blogging, one thing that really keeps me motivated and happy are books. I love reading. I am not the type of girl who would say “I don’t like the typical love stories…” Trust me; I love the typical love stories. If given a chance, I would spend my life reading the same type of books all my life. I love classics as well. I don’t have LIBRARY collection but yeah I have something that I call as my Mini-Library. Not much of a collection. The relation between me and books started when I was 10 (I guess) and my daddy gifted me a novel ‘Little Women’ by ‘Louisa May Alcott’. That was my first ever Novel. I have lost the novel. It actually went missing. But that was the time I could relate myself with books. Then later, my ma used to bring for me ‘Mills and Boons’ from her office library and that introduced me to the world of Romance. In school, where my fellow-classmates used to love to read books full of illustrations and fairy tales, I used to read Subhash Chandra Bose’s Autobiography.
My mama (maternal uncle) who was in the India Navy used to love reading spiritual books and he introduced me to books about Swami Ramakrishna. Though I couldn’t relate myself a lot to these books but at times these were good. One of my cousin brothers asked me to read a book ‘The Namesake’ by ‘Jhumpa Lahiri’. I read the book and I really loved the literature in it.
There was a time wherein I used to read more of Bengali Authors and used to love their bold way of writing. When Chetan Bhagat was all over the bookstalls, I decided to buy his ‘One Night at a call Center’ and I never liked it. No offence to him or his fans but it’s just that Chetan Bhagat’s writing was never my favorites. There was a time when I was in my Degree College, where I was drawn towards Old English Classics like Shakespeare and Jane Austen. I am a big fan of Jane Austen. One of my cousin’s cousin (I consider her as a friend-cousin) gifted me a combined novel of Jane Austen. It’s good to have some classics in your collection. I do have Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and some others novels in my collection.
Initially, I used to buy books from those roadside stalls in Fort, Mumbai. But later when I was been cheated wherein some pages were missing from the novel I found out a website, FlipKart.com that has a wide collection of Novels. It is addictive. I have bought most of my books from FlipKart.com.
Reading has been a family hobby in my case. My paternal side cousins are more into the Novels, though none of them likes Romantic Fiction but yeah we have a history of reading books and keeping them in a so-called Mini-Library. Likewise, my maternal side relatives have the habit of reading intellectual and spiritual books. There was a time in my teenage where I was almost in depression due to the silly problems like, weight issues, acne, and pathetic crushes and so on. Then, the only getaway for me was Books. As Ernest Hemingway has said, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” To some extent it is true. No offence to my best friend or other friends, but a book is always there even when a friend isn’t. And a book never judges you. Ironically, you are being judged by what book you read.
In Pride and Prejudice, Miss Bingley had said, “How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way! I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!—When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” I would do something similar. When I have a house of my own I would love to have an excellent library.
Well on this note I would like to end this post here. Another suggestion that Kavita has given me is really good. She suggests whenever I feel I am going through a Writer’s Block; I can read any book from my collection and write about it. Cool!
Below are some clicks from my collection. Some of my books are missing. I must’ve given them to someone.
By the way, E-mails on chaoticsoulzzz@gmail.com are most welcome. Would look forward for some more ideas, criticisms, and advices…
Keep reading! Keep Blogging! Keep Clicking!
The Chaotic Soul 
and if i dont get a new RSS mail abt ur post, i go through some old posts have bookmarked 🙂
glad to see our voracious reader’s collection 🙂
from a distance it looked like movie or game disk collection 😛
a rack of finely shelfed books is the place where i get lost 🙂
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🙂 Thanks!
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I can never dare to ask for topics from random readers. Criticism is not easy for everyone.
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True! but at times one should be open to criticism, especially when you know it can teach you something and improve you.
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I know that feeling of going to my shelves, hoping to find a particular volume I once admired or enjoyed or found useful (as a writer, there can be a huge difference). But that one’s gone, which sets off a whole other set of questions — did I lend it to someone, did an old girlfriend just take off with it, did I just give it away somewhere in my journey?
These days, I’m trying to trim my collection. Our bookshelves were overflowing. So I recently went through everything, with the focus on whether a work was something I’m likely to need or revisit in the next five years as I enter a period where I can more fully attend to reading and my own writing, free of the office. It was painful, but more than a thousand volumes were sent off to other people’s collections, one way or another.
Still, it’s amazing some of the works that have slipped through my fingers. So keep those that re-energize you. A page or two can sometimes break through that writer’s block, believe me.
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On average Indian IQ is only in mid 80′ as some claim being made there by Indian Hindu posters but the avg is only 82.With that IQ I think Indian people are not very book lover.I’m an Anglo Indian born and brought up here in India and this is the success story of this country-Read this blog Indian/Chinese IQ puzzle
Indian IQ only in low 80’s and the only city/region which had some success is Calcutta/West Bengal but even the boys from Calcutta accepted that it was British influence that paved their success in scientific world.
Read those comments from 700-905 in that particular blog.
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I enjoyed your write as I to love my books. I read from several different authors. I will be back to read more as time permits..
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