What’s to Read

I don’t think there has ever been a time when there has been a lack of good books or books in general. I once stood staring at the collection of books of my great grandfather. There were hundreds covering the long bookshelves on one long wall of the study room. I was small and I wondered if all the books were to fall down together, would the stories flow out like rivers into the world. Imagination is such a wonderful thing.



So, books have always been there, even if I read about people two hundred years back, there was still plenty to read and the writers back then were something quite unique of their kind, a kind never to walk on Earth again and I would give the credit to the lack of many unnecessary distractions of present today.



I always wanted to have a library, but the time between wanting and acting was too long and books have become a lot more expensive. One has to utilise quite a considerable amount to make a collection of any kind today.



I have held myself to blame for not giving modern writers more chance in the past but that would gradually change. In the present I wouldn’t exaggerate that there are a lot more writers than there were ever in history and I don’t think even the writers of the past anticipated this. I sometimes feel there are more writers than there are readers out there today.



But honestly while the number of writers might be more, that doesn’t mean the number of quality writers have also risen at that pace. The books have become quite attractive with better designing software; there are a lot more variety of books on more subjects and themes that one could think of. Commercialisation is at its peak with content creators having books ghost written. Getting a book published has become so less of an effort that writing a book has become a kind of bucket list addition, a shine to add to name, something that is replacing showpieces at certain houses.



Ever since I shifted my focus from school books to general books my experiences have expanded further. More than what I want to read, my focus is also on what else is out there. Because you walk into a book fair today you will notice there are many books from world unknown. While I have been involved in reviewing books in our small humble page, my collection of books has been thriving and growing and I think slowly the library setup is becoming a necessity rather than some wish I wanted to be fulfilled once.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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