My reading habits

I have been an ardent fan of books from my childhood days. My father has inculcated this habit into my blood, both by making me read  and by his own reading habits. There were days when I have spent my late nights in reading, unable to stop my enthusiasm to know what goes next. But the surprise is that, I'm a lark person. These reading habits existed till the marriage. My reading went down, during the marital phase but in the past few years I'm regaining this passion of mine. 

But, looking back, I feel a lot my reading preferences have changed. In my childhood and teenage days, I have been a fan  of novels (both Malayalam and English), both fiction and non-fiction. I used to re-read certain books and such an activity used to bring some kind of nostalgia in me. A day with Jane Austin or Hardy or MT would ease my brain like anything and I used to love doing that. I clearly remember, once during my vacation, I kept reading Far Away From Madding Crowd till around 4.00am and Amma, who was sleeping in another room, kept scolding me that the lights are still on.

But, recently such classics do not seem to excite me. This I assume is probably because the struggles that I have gone through. Probably my brain tells me that the stories are just stories and life is much different. And so, my reading preferences are changing. The type of books that can keep me engaged and force me to finish reading are more 'serious' ones like Shashi Tharoor, English poetry, and the ones like Brain Rules from John Medina. These books are more of analytical type and fact based, and I enjoy how the authors have brilliantly gathered and coalesced information into their writing. When I read English poetry too, my feelings run around the brilliance in the author's play with the beautifully selected words.

I think I have been analysing my past struggles too much and thus am more into these analytical habits, even while reading. Anyways, I'm slowly getting back into the normalcies that existed in my life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm reading Brain Rules from John Medina these days. My pace of reading has come down with depression but I'm loving the activity. There are some very nice info available on Medina's book. Will write on them once I'm done with the book.

The book has been suggested and given to me by a friend of mine. Nothing seems a coincidence these days in my life. Especially meeting him and another friend of mine from my previous lab. The direct and indirect support that I receive during this toughest period from these two is unfathomable. More about them later...