Booking Through Thursday: Contemplation

This week’s Booking Through Thursday asks:

“So … you’ve just finished reading a book. For the sake of the discussion, we’ll say it was everything a book should be—engaging, entertaining, interesting, thought-provoking. The kind you want to gush over. The question is—do you immediately move on to your next book? Or do you take time to contemplate this writerly masterpiece and all its associated thoughts/emotions/ideas for a while first?“

Normally I don’t wait to begin my next read. It doesn’t matter how I felt about my previous read. I tend to write reviews for every book I read. That kind of helps to vent any positive or negative feelings I may have about the book anyway.

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Booking Through Thursday: Records

This week’s Booking Through Thursday asks:

“Do you keep a list of the books you’ve read? How? In a journal? Through one of the online services? If so, WHY? To keep good records for future reference? To make sure you don’t accidentally reread? If not, why not? Too eager to move on to the next book? Too lazy? Never thought to bother?“

Oh yes I very much do. Ever since I was 10-11 years old I have been keeping track of which books I’ve read, what books I’ve bought, what books I want to buy/read; etc. Before the advent of the internet and social networking sites I used to keep a journal. Now I do it mostly using online services.

I basically used to do it just for the simple joy of writing down the name of books. Whether I found a particular title or a story to be interesting, I wanted to read a book, I had bought a book  and, the greatest joy of all, I had read a book, just writing it all down gave me an immense sense of pleasure. Nowadays it has become more of a ‘keeping track of my reading’ thing.

Booking Through Thursday: Burn

This week’s Booking Through Thursday asks:

“If your house was burning down and you could save just one book from your collection … what would it be?

 (And, for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll allow series to count as “one” long, multi-volume book.)”

You know I have actually pondered about this quite often. In fact, some of my close family members (being alarmed by my bibliophilia!) have also asked the same question. Although it would break my heart to leave behind any of my beloved possessions I think I would probably grab my edition of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen because of its sentimental value. It was a wedding gift for my parents from one of my mom’s cousins. The book has been around for the past 30 years now and is one of my favourites.

Booking Through Thursday: School Books

This week’s Booking Through Thursday asks two questions:

“We all had to read things in school that we didn’t like … but what about something you read for a class that you ended up liking (or loving)? An author you discovered that you might not have found? A genre you hadn’t thought about?”

Well, I would really like take a different route about this. I am not going to talk about a book but an essay that I loved. While at school I read an essay called Reading for Pleasure by English author L.A.G.Strong. The essay was basically about why people should read what they like and only what they like. No one should force anyone to read anything. He then goes on to illustrate the point by recounting his own experiences with books while growing up. Strong’s language was so simple yet pleasant. I remember being so surprised to find that a grown up was telling us to read for our own pleasure and that too on a school textbook! I took Strong’s lesson to heart that reading should be a passion, not a chore. Also, I have been tracking down all the authors and books mentioned in the essay as being his favourites. It is through this essay that I came to know of W.W.Jacobs and of Under the Red Robe by Stanley J. Weyman, one of my favourite reads from 2009. Strong’s views helped shape my attitude towards reading. It also introduced me to authors I would have otherwise known nothing about. So, I can say the essay Reading for Pleasure is something I read for school but ended up loving.

Booking Through Thursday: Sniffle

This week’s Booking Through Thursday asks:

“What was the most emotional read you have ever had?”

If by emotional it means books that made me cry, I would have to choose from a rather limited field. I am admittedly not a very sentimental person. Books or movies generally do not make me cry. Only very few books have ever made me cry. Right now only Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton comes to mind.

There aren’t many big moments in this story. But there are a lot of little moments that makes this book what it is. Moments like Mr. Chips’ first day at Brookfield, his memories of Katherine, working at Brookfield through the war years, having the new school boys over for tea. It is little details like this that made this book an emotional read for me. And the ending, although admittedly sappy, pulled at my heartstrings. After finishing Goodbye, Mr. Chips I was bawling like a baby. I guess that makes it the most emotional read I’ve ever read.