Nepali Wanderer

Back in 2011, when I had just started using Facebook, there was a section called “Books” in the bio. I had “proudly” written: “Reading is a waste of time.” So, you can imagine how my love affair with books began. I seriously questioned why people would spend so much time reading when they could just watch a movie! Fueled by curiosity, one day I took the daring step of actually giving it a try, delving into Animal Farm, recommended by a book-loving friend. While I can only write good things about the book now (just read it), the truth is it was a tough experience for me. Reading proved too difficult to dare again.

A year later, when I was preparing for my SAT, I encountered the much-dreaded Critical Reasoning section. “A few questions to answer from the passages given, should be easy peasy,” I thought. Except, I consistently scored 1 out of 5 right! A cousin bluntly advised that there was no shortcut — I had to read. But with the exam in three months, how much could I read! After two or three failed attempts at shortcuts, I faced the truth and embarked on my reading journey. As difficult as it was, I managed to read a few books (and also improve on my score.)

One book I remember from those early days is a random book (lent by a relative) that I absolutely loved. Only to discover later it was actually a classic (The Catcher in the Rye). The movie 3 Idiots had been released just before, so I also read Five Point Someone. Buoyed by its easy language and flow, I read another book by the same author, which I count as The 3 Mistakes of My Life (okay, it’s not that bad too). Early in my reading journey, I learned a crucial lesson: You need to be careful with what you read, unless you already know your type. I started being selective and mixed challenging long reads (like Madame Bovary and 1984) with lighter, enjoyable ones (like Dan Brown’s books).

I continued reading into my college years and maintained a rate of 4-5 books a year. Apart from reading anything related to Manchester United (like three autobiographies on Sir Alex alone), I also read a few enduring fictions then (A Thousand Splendid Suns, The God of Small Things, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Great Gatsby, etc.). Reading just a few books a year had created my image as a reader among my friends, making me realise another important insight: Just how uncommon reading is in general.

As I transitioned into the working world, my relationship with reading entered another phase. While I acknowledged the importance of reading and enjoyed it when I did, the challenge lay in finding time amid competing priorities. Hoping that abundance would inspire more reading, I adopted the habit of “gifting” myself with books periodically, a strategy that surprisingly worked. Then came the phase that transformed my reading journey.

Towards the end of 2019, I decided to take my first sabbatical, seeking to explore other aspects of life. With more time on my hands (as I was about to deactivate all my social media accounts), I made a resolution to read everything I had wanted to in 2020. Two months into my sabbatical reading spree, the Covid lockdown struck. By then, I had discovered my love for reading history, only to run out of books on the subject. Given the lockdown circumstances, my only resort was the internet. So, in no time, I switched to digital, downloading Epubs on my laptop. There’s a quote on reading: “Read what you love until you love reading.” I was swiftly moving along this quote.

Another insight unfolded during this period — how seemingly different topics are interconnected, as I was seamlessly navigating from one theme to another. From History to Ancient History to Ancient Vedic History to Spirituality. (Probably because I had read Siddhartha and Guns, Germs and Steel simultaneously?) Or from History to the History of Money to finally knowing about some investing and finance. (Blame The Ascent of Money for this!). Looking back now, going digital was a point of momentum shift. Since whatever I wanted to read (almost) was one download away, it felt like having immediate access to the vast knowledge base at my fingertips. So, the first thing I did after the lockdown was to get a Kindle! (And depart from the lure of the physical book, inadvertently embracing the “save trees” campaign.)

With Kindle, I started my theme-based reading phase, where I’d read 2-3 books a month, related to a particular topic. History. Science. Spirituality. Investing. Health. Work-related (Statistics, Machine Learning). Then I hit a funny phase, where my dad at first, and eventually I got worried about my reading spree. Just to ensure it wasn’t a social media thing, I stopped adding books on Goodreads. But none of it mattered. I had reached a point where I would postpone anything non-urgent just to indulge in a reading session. I had truly fallen in love with reading. For a curious bloke who would devour anything from TV and movies to newspapers and gossips, I had finally found my thing.

Obviously, there’s more to life, so I have felt the need to focus on growing other aspects of life (like writing, fitness, work-related, etc.) So, I have slowed down to 1 book a month or so. I find pleasure in entering a bookstore and picking up a book or two (as I did today). Okay, too much about my own reading journey, so here’s my take on reading in general before signing off.

I still maintain it’s a personal thing, and not everyone has to read. At the same time, if you ask me if I think it’s a useful habit, I’d say YES, at least from my own experience. As for explaining its utility (or application in real life), my take is simple: If it’s fun to you, you don’t need to justify its utility. Being curious about the world around is fun enough, so you don’t need to worry about applying Astronomy in real life if you’re curious about the stars. (Unless you’re reading a book like “10 ways to make a paper boat”, which is a different story.)

Plus, we do what we learn around every day, so if you’re reading about something, you’re bound to apply it in your life, knowingly or unknowingly. For example, since I don’t read fiction much, I sometimes envy people who do, as I have found fiction readers more mature in different situations of life (probably because of their vicarious experience of multiple lives.)

Above all, as I said before: It’s okay to do things in life just for the sake of doing. Maybe it’s blissful that way.