'Land of Favourite Books!' :)

'The Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton by another favourite storyteller was another one of my all-time favourites. Loved the book, because it gave wings to my dreams. Especially, if you spent almost every afternoon, on a tree and hoping to climb another branch each year. 

I was doing that every afternoon, but now I had a book, which I was using to imagine. See, this tree, which was in front of my grandparents’ home, on which, I could see a part of the neighbourhood. Which, I attempted to do as well.

You firstly, discover three siblings, Jo, Bess and Fanny. The best parts were the first few chapters, when you discover a) A forest almost next door, b) your ultra-cool neighbours like Moon Face or Silky, or go on to meet Saucepan Man and Dame Washalot and even take Angry Pixie and Mr Watzisname and you could have cool looking Owl, who lives next to Ol’ Silky, visit. Sometimes, you even have little rabbits popping up, every now and then. And c) you have to find out what place, on top of the tree, you can visit today.

It could be, ‘Take what you Please’ ‘Land of Birthdays’ or perhaps fly to ‘Land of Dame Slap’ even lands of Dreams, Spells and Presents! Or perhaps lands of Marvels and Giants. Or the best one was ‘Land of Know Alls’

Wish they had a ‘Land of Favourite Books’ too. I think that one would make another story altogether. In fact, I think of this particular land almost all the time. In it, I become a character of a particular book, or it could be a guest or perhaps the author herself. Like, I did with Agatha Christie books.  

And let the imagination soar. Boy oh boy, can you beat that?

And luckily it does not have to stop, ever. I can still imagine a few books now too. Like, ‘The Little Prince’ or Jane Austen’s books like ‘Pride and

Prejudice’ or ‘Emma’ too. Or perhaps, someone from JK Rowling’s books too. You could be one of RK Narayan’s characters like Swami and Friends. Or perhaps, one of Anita Desai’s characters from ‘The Village by the Sea’ or even O Henry’s and I could go on and on.

There is no limit to what you can do on top of that tree. I miss it so much, and nowadays, I try and go there, and all I see is that silly apartment. I don’t see much of anyone, I knew then. Not even a view even. Now, I can only remember, but still, it gave me what I wanted then, and even today, I can imagine myself up on my tree. :) 

Thinking, and imagining myself in so many different lands,  and the best thing is I still have my dream of  ‘Land of Favourite Books’. So, if you ever come home and spot me thinking, I will be there...