Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts

8 Oct 2012

Date A Girl Who Reads

seongyosa . Interestingly, she herself had read it in coypatalagsa‘s blog. In short, this article has been going around a lot. Its not surprising that it gained so much popularity, just read it and you will see why. I really couldn't resist the temptation to re-blog it!!So, here it is..


Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second-hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamier is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted.

Ask her if she likes the book. Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.


Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her.You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

21 May 2009

Reading-My passion

I’ve been a voracious reader right from my childhood. As a child I used to love reading storybooks. I’ve often heard my mom recollecting how I used to cry for storybooks when other children wanted chocolates and toys. The world of books has always fascinated me. As they said in ‘Namesake’, “Books let you travel without moving an inch”. They take you across unseen lands and give you a treasure trove of knowledge on any topic. I’ve often wondered how much those people who don’t read are missing out.
One of the best things that could have happened to me was a life long membership in EMS Co-operative library at the age of 10. When I first got a membership there it was just a one-roomed library in the second floor of EMS Co-operative bank and now it has grown into a full-fledged library with all modern facilities. I still remember the first set of books I took from there- ‘The tale of twin cities’,’ Black Beauty’ and ‘Jane Eyre’. I used to love the time spend there among rows and rows of books. And I think it was from that time that I started of dreaming about a library of my own. With ceiling high shelves filled with books on all topics. Those days I used to be a great admirer of English classics (I still love them! My all time favorite books are, ‘Heidi’, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘Anne of Green Gables’. I never get tired of reading them!) And so my dream library had the English touch with Victorian style furnishings. I even dreamed about having a secret room hidden behind one of the shelves where I would retire for a peaceful reading, far from all disturbances (I think I got that idea from Famous Five).
My school also provided me with an excellent collection of books. My library teacher, Jayashree miss was a good reader and a lady of a strong and impressive personality. She was very strict that we should not confine ourselves to reading just one genre of books.
She encouraged us to read more of classics than Enid Blyton. She also made us write summaries of the books we read and the difficult words in the book and its meaning. It helped us a lot in improving our vocabulary and writing skill. I still have this habit of writing summaries of the books I read. I owe a lot to my wonderful teacher who guided us through the world of books. Thank you Jayashree miss for molding my reading habits and nurturing my love for English language. (If I weren’t into engineering, I would have definitely become an English teacher!)
My friend circle has always been one of book lovers. Discussions on books have always thrived in my gang. Though initially very supportive, the attitude of my parents towards my reading habits changed as I grew up. Can’t blame them! If I get into a book, I forget everything else. I used to smuggle book into bathroom and spend hours reading them (my parents never really figured out why I was taking so much time for bathing!) I’ve even spend the entire night reading Harry Potter, cleaverly hidden under my textbooks. But the net effect was that my father banned all books except the texts in my room! But rules are to be broken and I manage to get hold of a book or two once in a blue moon, courtesy to my very benevolent friends!
A cup of coffee, whiff of fresh air and an interesting book is all I need to be happy in this world!!