Dear readers hope your Wednesday was more productive than mine. Thanks to blogchatter atleast finishing this blog had a deadline or else this would have been sacrificed by my procrastination monster too.
Well, today I want to jog your memory and take you back to the days when reading a novel on a Kindle wasn’t a phenomenon.
I am a mother of a five-year-old daughter and about to bring another child into this world. The first novel that I read was “The stars shine down” written by Sidney Sheldon. My journey of reading novels has gone through a roller coaster ride. Over time it became my best companion however, it wasn’t the case since the beginning.
I am a true romantic at heart and like others believe that one can’t forget the first love of their life, I believe, one can’t forget their first read as well. If their heart was in it and it left a long-lasting impact.
How it all started?
I am a product of a government school and books never fascinated me. I was in 12th standard and wasn’t very bright when it came to academics. All thanks to my economics teacher, I was intrigued to test if my interest was not in books or the way it was introduced. She asked me to pick a novel and come back after 10 days with the story. I had no one to rely on because my parents weren’t into novels and this idea didn’t please them much. Board exams and Indian parents are a match-made in heaven, I swear. Anyways, I was gifted a novel by a friend who thoroughly enjoyed reading novels. Although, as per my teacher Sidney Sheldon’s novel wasn’t really the ideal type that she advised but okay with it given she didn’t want to discourage my enthusiasm.
I went to her after 4 days and narrated the whole plot. She said the gleam in my eyes was different that day. That is how I was introduced to the world of books and their magical world. We worked together and ma’am made sure to teach a lot of topics in a way of stories and not just what’s written in the NCERT book. Not only did I score the highest in economics in my class, but I also managed to score more than my parents ever expected.
First pregnancy and reading
On the days when I don’t want to see the outside world or people who make it worse, I find my escape in books. Contrary to others, my reading has increased post I adorned the hat of motherhood. I absolutely abhorred when people passed their opinions and advice on me and as a coping mechanism, I found my solace in books.
From reading “Inferno” to “Tamas” and from Haruki Murakami to Jane Austen, I found my world in these stories and authors. I know, my choices were and are pretty eclectic when it comes to books.
To be honest, my choices often depend on my mental state at that point in time when I am deciding to pick up a book. Well, the days I read Tamas instead of reading something to make me happy I chose what reflected within me, I was battling postpartum depression and wanted to know how bad the world can get. It was absurd, I know.
Anyone with their right frame of mind would have deterred to pick such a choice but my heart found some weird calmness reading the book. I felt the pain through that book and that deviated my thoughts of feeling empty from inside.
How is it going?
I read books with positivity and happy endings when I feel happy from within because somehow I can relate with the emotions there and other days I just scoff at happily ever after. I don’t know if it’s just me or anyone out there who can also relate to such a thought process of deciding to read a book.
For the last few years, I have a routine, and not a day goes by without reading a few pages of a novel. I use to be afraid of reading new authors or usually stuck to the romance genre. A lot has changed and now I feel more comfortable with other genres too, non-fiction still seems a bit odd to me. Reading debut novels doesn’t give me jitters anymore, thanks to this, I have discovered a few fabulous reads.
Currently reading Norwegian Woods by Haruki Murakami and soon will be back with its review 🙂 till then don’t forget to share your first novel and its memory in the comment section below.
This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.
Please do not forget to subscribe to our newsletter and we promise not to spam you. Do not forget to check our books corner for kids. Also, if you like my work, don’t forget to follow me on INSTAGRAM.
Nice post. I still remember in my childhood school going days, I used to wait eagerly in school when I will be back home in the afternoon, and after lunch I will slip onto my bed with the Bengali translated science fiction novels of Jules Verne, and those myriad stories with their fantastic strange worlds developed my reading habits and love for books. Courtesy to my Dad, we had a fair share of hard bound books in our home since he was an avid reader, and I love books too.
It’s a tremendous progress from Sidney Sheldon to Murakami.
I enjoyed this post of yours. I don’t remember the first book I read because, frankly, I was born in a house strewn with books. However, Enid Blyton was always a favourite. I think the first book I consciously read was ‘Little Women’ because I won it for an English contest at school. After that, it has been a rollercoaster ride… so many books come to mind. The books of Daphne Du Maurier, R K Narayan, Jane Austen, PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie… the classics, followed by the modern Jeffrey Archer, Gillian Flynn, Wilbur Smith, Chitra Banerjee, Shashi Tharoor… the list is endless.
i have been an avid for almost 38 of my 43 years. My first books were comics that we would buy at home & then the first story book i read was by Enid Blyton.
I picked up my first book from my school library when I was 8 years old. It was a Noddy and I found it absolutely ridiculous so didn’t read it and when my teacher asked me if I had read it, I lied. This was such a nostalgic post 🙂
Lovely post, takes me back to when I first experienced a novel. It was read to my second-grade class by my class teacher. I was enthralled by it! it was called The Pheonix! That was it! I became fascinated with reading…
The first novel that I read was in Marathi. Luckily in my family, all like to read books so my introduction to to books was even before I started to read novels. The first English novel that I read was Agatha Christie’s Pocket Full Of Rye.
I remember getting a book issued by our library sir, and for me, it’s always Nancy Drew. So much fun to read and get it reissued if we don’t complete it within a week.
It was so interesting to read about beginning of your reading journey. indeed, we all have a special person in life, who inspire us to enter in reading world. at my place, my mom is an avid reader and we ( me and my brother) learnt the art of reading and enjoying it from her.
A nostalgic post. My first book was Nancy Drew series . Loved reading about your memories associated with books and good to know the journey continues….
Well don’t really remember my first book but yes it stated with comics then to noddy which I read because it used to come in all the colours, then famous five to secret seven and probably I was in first year og college when I stated with sidney Sheldon and my favorite was doomsday conspiracy.
It was my Second Thought by Shobha De. I can’t forget those days when I spend time reading a novel and short stories in the evening time.
At that time I hadn’t had a habit of reading. But today it’s in my daily lives
I am not so much into reading but there was a time when I was. My first book was from an author in the States called Mitch Albom. I think I had picked Tuesday with Morrie on a trip (and thank god for that!). I ended up reading a few more books by Mitch after that.
Interesting post, brought back many memories. I remember borrowing Robin Cook’s Coma from my friend in college. Before that it was Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys etc. Like you, Sidney Sheldon’s novels too have been a part of my reading journey.
Reading has been a habit that was inculcated right from early childhood. So if I jog my memory, it goes back to reading Enid Blyton, and then Hardy Boys, to westerns, and Sidney Sheldon, Alistair Maclean etc..
I am a product of convent and we used to have a rule kind of to take one book from library every week and return it after 7 days. So books came into my life and so did Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. I was, in fact, drawn to see Venice because of its depiction in Nancy Drew stories. When I went there then I could see how beautifully Venice has been captured in that book.
Wow this post made me nostalgic. I was a bibliophile from a young age of 6. As a kid I read lots of books and my fav series in school days were “sweet valley” and “Nancy drew” and I started with novels in my 11th, collage days. I started with Shidney Sheldon n i finished all “SS” books before I went to 12th.
I still remember very clearly that I started reading when I was in 11th grade. By gods grace, I had met a friend who was too much into reading and with her, I also started. My first book though was mills and boons and later on, I went on to read over 500 of them to date. But I am very very happy that I was introduced to the world of books early in life. It really helped me shape my thought process and language.
I loved how differently your love for reading started. I had been a bookworm in my childhood and continued being so till my college days. I remember the first book that came in my hand was The Little Mermaid. The true love of actual book reading started from 6th standard, with Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers.