A Turn up for the Books (Story of Transformation 35)

       "The whole world opened to me when I learned to read." Mary Mcleod Bethune

       It all started with ‘Muna’, a monthly magazine for children.

     My mom handed me a copy of it one fine day saying "padnu parcha, naya naya kura taha huncha" (Reading helps in your exploration). I was in grade one, maybe. I went through the pages one by one fascinated by those beautiful pictures. I realized it had stories written by students. I wanted to write one.

        Sort of words; I realized.

        Even these days when I sit down to write, I feel; I am sort of words, I am not good at vocabularies... I am stuck most of the times when it comes to prepositions. 

"Should I use ‘on’ or ‘ín’ here?" I struggle. 

       I hesitate to call myself a writer because I feel like writers are the most intelligent person and the tag writer bongs on my head with the question ‘Do I qualify to call myself a writer?’

     I stumble to answer it. But yes what I would be happy to call myself is an amateur who doesn’t want to quit writing as it lets me express. It lets me dream.

      “Sorry, I drifted away. I am not going to write about writing today.”

     “Yes, that’s why I am not a writer. I keep on drifting away from my context.” J

      So, ‘Muna’ brought me to a whole new world of reading. Living in a nuclear family where both my parents were busy in work, and with no friends around the neighborhood, I used to be home alone most of the times and during those moments, books were my only companion.

      Reading was first a compulsion, then fascination and now a survival. I call it my basic need. If you are close to me you know, I can live without rice (staple food of Nepal) but not without books. I don’t realize when ‘Muna’ turned into Shakespeare and into Oscar Wilde and into Daniel Goleman. It just happened.

     

 I enjoy reading all genres, all writers, both poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. What I feel is I would have lost into the darkness of loneliness if it weren’t books, I would have never reflected about my deeds if it weren’t writers like Matthieu Richard. I would have never loved my beloved so deeply if I had never learned that love can be so deep like that of Juliet. I would have never been a feminist if it wasn’t Virgina Woolf.

      Books show me my own shift in perspective. I had generated a different meaning out of ‘Shirish ko Ful’ when I read it the first time when I was in grade 12 and then when I read it the second time in my undergrad, I realized that book was way beyond what I had inferred.

     Those lifeless pages have given life to me and not only to me but to so many other people.

Today I am sharing the list of books that friends on my Facebook shared as the one that changed their life in some ways. The list isn’t in any particular order.

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

2.  Harry Potter by JK Rowling'

3. Peer-e-Kamil by Umera Ahmed

4. The 8^th Habit by Stephen Covey

5. Biography of Warren Buffett by Lawrence A. Cunningham

6. Who moved my cheese? by Spencer Johnson

7. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

 8. The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand

 9. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

 10. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

11. Personality by Swami Vivekananda

12.  The Diamond Sutra by Osho

13. The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen

14. Jane Ayre by Charlotte Bronte

15. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

16. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

17.  Gulmohar English Reader (A Secondary level English Book)

18. Goldmund and Narcissus - Herman Hesse

I strongly believe that this list of books will definitely bring a new perspective in your life. I would love to learn your viewpoint as for me reading is not just going through the words of the writer but it's also giving your perspective to it.

Finally, if you are wondering how can you grow your love for reading or just wanting to share whatever you have read, don’t hesitate to join us in our weekly reading session ‘Reader’s Circle’https://www.facebook.com/events/640249989517770/.