Paperbacks rule- the lost art of reading

Reading books - this hobby brings to mind the following charming picture for me - cuddling up under a blanket made warm and reading and re-reading worn out books that have been your all-time favorites. I have always loved to read, since I was young. But as I grew older, distractions in the form of teenage fads, crushes, movies, friends, outings, studying, getting a job, doing well at the job, and a numerous other things somehow robbed me of this passion. I have fortunately woken up to the realization that a very important part of my being that I loved was slowly disappearing, and I decided to start reading again. I mean I would always read occasionally, but not with the same passion and fervour that accompanied my reading hours in childhood. I was always considered to be a precocious child, but then now when i am grown up and can decide for myself then the adjective turns to dense, as in referring to the 'older' version of me. It has to be, because I don't read, I mean I don't even have the same zeal for reading. Earlier a book started would not be put down till the story was finished. Now I can tarry on a single novel for days..!

The first thing I decided to do was make up a short list of some classics which were long overdue, and then buy them a few at a time over a period of months. Of course, aided by the ever helpful Google.com I was quickly able to narrow down the books I wanted and also the places I could pick them from. Thanks to the amazing world of online shopping, I would not even have to venture out of the cosy air-conditioned confines of my cubicle, and I could have them delivered to my doorstep, literally. So I began my book-shopping and the first three purchases made at Infibeam.com - Wuthering Heights, Lady Chatterlee's Lover, and Far from the Madding Crowd lessened my account balance (again ever helpful net banking facility) and I decided that I would hunt for other books and bookmark them (so to speak) for purchase the next month.

During this hunt for good and affordable copies of Gone With the Wind, Guns of Navarone, and Dr. Zhivago - I stumbled upon links that offered me the privilege of simple clicking on the link and downloading the e-book for free. I was super-thrilled at first and quickly started hunting for more links of all the other books I wanted. It became this maddening mission of mine to collect all the world's greatest classics for free in the friendly htm or pdf versions. I was aided plenty - it was hardly difficult. Every search string comprising the words 'free ebook download of ...'the title'... returned innumerable hits. At first I downloaded, then I began carefully compiling folders on my laptop, author-wise, category-wise, and so on. Then I went ahead and emailed and called other friends who had similar tastes and they in turn shared with me some more such amazing sites. where i could go treasure hunting.

As I sat gloating over my suddenly acquired vast collection, I experienced this sinking sensation out of nowhere. I didn't realise what it was I was feeling at the pit of my stomach. As I dug deeper, an image flashed to my mind, and here i would like to go back to the start of this particular post. Reading, once meant more to me than than just gobbling up words and sentences and understanding their meaning and building vocabulary and slotting stories. It once meant the charm of sitting back (or lying back) as it would often be in my case... and allowing myself to be transported into that magical world from the book i was reading. It meant relaxing and sipping on some beverage while feasting on the different situations and experiencing all the emotions that the characters of the book were going through. But now in this world where everything is so magically available at the click of a wand - my pc's mouse, I wonder if I should just prohibit myself from downloading these soulless versions of the books.

Maybe I should not deprive myself of the smell of the pages as they grew older, the warm textures of an oft read book, the yellowing of the covers, maybe instead of investing on pointless trips to crazy flea markets to buy unnecessary accessories I should concentrate on using the contents of my bank account to invest in precious assets- books, treasures I can hand down to my kids. well of course I could also hand down the more easy to maintain ebooks but there is a certain joy is preserving a well written book and finding it on the shelf of your home library. It brings back memories right from the moment you glimpse the cover page. Sigh! I feel better now, Dr Zhivago, I have made up my mind and you'll have to wait till next month to regale me of your wartime stories and love story. Paperbacks rule!