Reading was something, I have always enjoyed. So, today I
want to share with you how the reading habit actually began. It was my father,
who at that time was a voracious reader, my mother who enjoyed a few books, and
my grandmother who would read anything I brought home.
What did I read? I will never forget the time I walked into
that store. It was the 23rd of May 1988 around 7 pm. I remember
exactly where it was, and how it was built and the wonderful stuff it
contained. Books…The children’s books were upstairs and I was led there by my
father. He left me there and walked off to pick up a few books for himself.
So, there I was, browsing at the store, picking up a book or
two. And what did I find? My first Enid Blyton! The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat. I bought it because I loved the cover. It had two girls and three boys,
plus a dog and a cat, all in a garden with pink roses and a wooden room and
green hills in the distance. I loved the first girl’s haircut, (noticed it was
a little like mine) short hair and playing with boys. Since I was a tomboy at
the age, it fit right into my bookshelf.
The story was simple. It spoke of the Five Find-Outers and
Buster their dog, who are all set to find a Siamese cat, which was missing. Mr Goon
is the errant policeman and the troublemaker in this piece. How the five of
them manage to find the thief, and save their friend, Luke forms this 126-page
story.
After this trip to the book store, I never looked back. I had
discovered my love for reading. Of course, I had read a lot of comics before
that, after school, I would come home and hit the ‘comics’. The number of
Tinkles and the Amar Chitra Kathas at home are proof of that. I would wait for
my father to get home and hand me a few comics. I had a cousin, who used to
hide her comics because she would feel that I would finish them up, instead of
playing.
Through these mystery series, I also discovered other Enid
Blyton books, one of which I must mention. ‘Famous Five’ mysteries had a whole
new impact on me. I was absolutely in awe of George. I think the short haircut
had come into play, a lot more by then and I was thinking I was a little like
her, as well. The boisterous and naughty kid, that I was (Also, not helped by
the fact that I was an only child, like George) and loved climbing trees, too. It
is no wonder that I had taken to books, in a big way, because I felt like I was
reading a bit of myself.
I then moved forward into the Carolyn Keene series, which
were the Nancy Drew Mysteries. We had another George, again she had short hair
and again she had tomboyish streak to her. She was Nancy Drew’s best friend and
the book, I first got was ‘The Moonstone Castle Mystery’.
In it, Nancy receives a moonstone as a gift from an unknown
person. This leads her
Most of these books later, another children’s book, I came
across was JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’. Though I was not that young, Harry took
me away into another fantasy driven world. It did not help that Harry Potter
and JK Rowling were both born on 31st July, just a day before my birthday. You
should have seen my excitement, when I found that out.
I started with the second one, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’. In this book,
the plot follows Harry’s life at Hogwarts. He is in
his second year, where he must follow the messages, which lead him into the Chamber
of Secrets and in the way of the heir of the Slytherin. He does this with Ron Weasley
and Hermione Granger, his two best friends.
What these books did to me was a mystery. They got me to be a
tomboy, and best of all, a book lover. Since it started with comics, it has not
ended even today. I could read the ACK and Tinkle comics even today with
the same enthusiasm and I could still pick up a Famous Five and go through
George’s huffs and still read a Harry Potter to discover the same enigmatic thrill,
which he showed.
So, lead on… ye Book Writer, Reader and Lover… :)
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