What need governs your Reading Habits?
There are two needs that constantly tug at me-
The need to escape my reality.
The need to be understood so deeply, that I feel heard and seen like never before.
It is the oscillation between these two that often governs my creative writing, as well the choices I make while consuming content. The older I grow, the more I understand how my choices have reflected on this trend.
I started reading to escape my reality. A quiet girl who never had enough words to speak, but always had enough eyes to observe all the lives around. I took to reading and could not get enough. I preferred reading books based on fantasy, or in countries far from mine. A seed of imagination was born, as I had specific ideas about what a geography looked like, what accents sounded like, the way a character would probably wear their hair.
This even reflected in the genres I read, and the authors I picked. The range included Khaled Hosseini, Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, Cecelia Ahern, Amish, Meg Cabot.
But as I grew older, the need to be understood increased. My reading shifted to Indian authors, books based in my hometown- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, Neel Mukherjee, Amitav Ghosh.
While I was never comfortable reading in Hindi, I also read a few books on mythology- a direct link to the conversations around me. After a while, even though I did not know the meaning of the prayers, I knew all the characters and the stories in them.
Pretty soon, with a loss of access to a physical library, I resorted to the digital world for recommendations.
It has been challenging, but I guess I am getting back to the habit of reading. This time, it is with mixed needs.
What need governs your reading habits?
~insight07 / Devika
The need to escape my reality.
The need to be understood so deeply, that I feel heard and seen like never before.
It is the oscillation between these two that often governs my creative writing, as well the choices I make while consuming content. The older I grow, the more I understand how my choices have reflected on this trend.
I started reading to escape my reality. A quiet girl who never had enough words to speak, but always had enough eyes to observe all the lives around. I took to reading and could not get enough. I preferred reading books based on fantasy, or in countries far from mine. A seed of imagination was born, as I had specific ideas about what a geography looked like, what accents sounded like, the way a character would probably wear their hair.
This even reflected in the genres I read, and the authors I picked. The range included Khaled Hosseini, Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, Cecelia Ahern, Amish, Meg Cabot.
But as I grew older, the need to be understood increased. My reading shifted to Indian authors, books based in my hometown- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, Neel Mukherjee, Amitav Ghosh.
While I was never comfortable reading in Hindi, I also read a few books on mythology- a direct link to the conversations around me. After a while, even though I did not know the meaning of the prayers, I knew all the characters and the stories in them.
Pretty soon, with a loss of access to a physical library, I resorted to the digital world for recommendations.
It has been challenging, but I guess I am getting back to the habit of reading. This time, it is with mixed needs.
What need governs your reading habits?
~insight07 / Devika
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message 1:
by
Yacoob
(new)
Oct 26, 2024 12:22AM
Mood, mostly. I have started tons of books but abandoned them when they no longer held appeal, or life just took over and reading them felt like an irrational activity, given the other demands. I'm always looking for fiction that I'll enjoy, but very rarely actually find something I like, which can be frustrating. As a child, I lived in the world of books, but as an adult, it's hard to latch onto them like I want to. The only genre which has remained a constant preference, through the decades, is autobiography/ memoir.
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This is something i have also noticed in myself. Growing up, finishing a book was not that difficult, irrespective of the fact if the story was engaging or not. These days while I have become extremely selective about the books I read, even then the urge to finish it is not as strong as before.
