MY NOT SO LITTLE BOOKSHELF

Hola guys

Here I am, sharing my first hand experience. I had never thought this would ever happen to me, to us and our future. Thanks to Harsh, I had already made up my mind towards the end of 2019. That I would not buy new books until I read dozens of my unread books or the books on my to be read list. Hence, it’s been three months into 2020 so far, I haven’t bought a book. Previously too, I bought half a dozen of books from the Book fair in September 2019.

So far, I was having a good time reading books. I found some good books that I had bought when I was younger and never read them. I sank my heart in my forever favourite book by Gibran in between. And enjoyed reading old children’s book like Matilda and reread the first ever book I got as a gift from a really special person in my life. It is My Life, My Rules by Sonia Golani. More than reading this book, I love rereading the message that was written for me.

Finally, my mid semester break came. I was really excited to visit bookstores in Khan Market with my best friends. But thanks to Coronavirus, I ended up cancelling the bookstore plan and  we had a night in instead. So this was universe’s way of ensuring that I don’t hoard another book. Although, I had thought, I would only buy a single book based on my new found interest. But you know, when you are in an amazing bookstore like Bahrisons or Faqir Chand, you end up finding real gems and hoard great number of books.

 Furthermore, to break the monotony and do something productive in my corona-vacation (pun intended, what sort of vacation when you gotta cancel your travel plans, but that’s another story). So, I started arranging my books in my bookshelf. I wanted to search new books to read next as I was towards the end of the book I was currently reading. There were eight stacks of books and journals in total. I took all the stacks out until the last one. I was happy looking at all my books, reading my journals and getting nostalgic. Halfway through the last stack of books, everything was normal. Until the last three books in the last stack, I found out active termites. I saw that my Satyarth Prakash (gifted by my grandfather) was almost reduced to half the size after being eaten by termites. The other two books were Adultery by Paulo Coelho and the third book was related to Thomas Hobbes. I swear I don’t remember anything about it. I had to literally throw these three books in the dustbin. Unfortunately, I hadn’t read three of them. I felt miserable. I couldn’t understand from where the termite came and how oblivious I was to them and their existence. The last time I cleaned my bookshelf was two to three months back. I was broken as hell. But I kept calm. I took great care of the rest 50ish odd books, 5 journals and unlimited stationery. I cleaned them, categorized them as read and unread. And finally packed them in cartons for the time being  until I can have my own lavish library (some two hundred centuries later, probably).  Till then, I am not gonna hoard books. I will only buy books until it is really urgent for me (apart from academic readings) . I will survive on libraries, my friends who can lend me their favourite books, and in exchange, I am going to do my first ever book giveaway soon on my instagram.

 

Moral of the story cut short is, don’t hoard books. Hoarding is capitalism. I am not preaching if capitalism is good or bad. But stating how disguised capitalism led me to collect and save books which I am sure I will never read. Take care of your books. They are your babies. See them often, make sure they are comfortable. Use public libraries. Ask your friends to lend you their books, grow together and share. Gift books and for the love of lord, read them and don’t pile up books saying you will read them later. These are really simple things that we are forgetting. It all appears simple and absurd until you experience it yourself. Books are a serious affair, take good care of yourself and great care of your books.

I had planned to write ways to take care of your books in this blog itself but before that, I wanted to give you my context. I will be back with next blog soon which will deal with easy and efficient ways to take care of books and prevent such accidents in future. Until next time. Let the lord of books bless my remaining books and give you the power to keep your books healthy too. Adios amigos.