tales of Suchita

Two years ago, I wrote this post on rediscovering reading and after I had published it, I distinctly remember feeling like I had let myself down – especially the younger self who thrived on books. It felt like I had given up, and that I would never again find that joy of a good book, of tuning out everything, even hunger, in favour of completing a book.

It took me two years, several bouts of disbelief and self doubt of calling myself a writer when I couldn’t be arsed to read a book, and fifty-nine books + setting myself a goal of reading thirty-six books in 2020 to reach a place where that disappointed younger self and current nerd is now looking satisfied. Here’s a picture of the proud achievement:

I will admit, reaching thirty-six was fraught with tears and fear – fear that I won’t make it. I did keep a difficult goal. I knew the number would be hard to achieve. So 2021 has seen the goal drastically reduce to twenty-seven. But here’s something I had not expected from the challenge – that the goal would force me to prioritize reading over every other form of leisure activity – that I would forego the FOMO of not being the first to watch a show because I had to reach that reading goal and despite all hopes, a book does not read itself.

And the second (third?) revelation was of course technology that has been a gift to me during the pandemic – the mighty Kindle. That gratification of liking, purchasing and it appearing in your library almost instantly gave me nerdgasms! And my family a serious case of head shakes and wonder that their 31-year-old is probably not going to grow up.

The only problem of the Kindle is, I will have to let go of the dream of having my own library since I have more or less sworn off paperbacks. But, the upside is, I now have a portable library which I can carry in my purse as a talisman. So you win some, you lose some.

What I did miss in my 2020 reading challenge was discussing the euphoria of a good book with fellow readers. So in 2021, I’ll be participating in #TBRChallenge with Blogchatter and hoping that that could lead to some fun discussions.

Here’s my quarter TBR (because it looks mighty pretty – duh):

Psst: To know more about how to participate in #TBRChallenge, check this.

Cheers to books, books, and more books!