Dear Reader: A Letter to the Girl Who First Fell in Love with Books
A letter to my younger self, retracing my reading journey.
Dear Ritika,
It has been around 13 years now. You started by leafing through pages of encyclopedias at the recommendation of your former friend. Initially, just reading about science, technology, inventions and general knowledge, you started dabbling in comics a few years later. Your smile just got wider, and your eyes squinted. Perhaps it was a safe space from all the bullying at school. It would then either be biographies of footballers, especially Messi, or some random teen magazine.
Cut to the 9th standard, the novel prescribed put you to sleep (though the premise of the same book in PG interested the elder version of you, but I couldn’t get through the book today either). But Helen Keller’s autobiography in the 10th standard ignited something in you (though you failed to complete that either and lost it, God knows where). Once done with gut-wrenching board exams, going through reviews of bestsellers on Amazon, you ordered a book hoping you may be able to complete it and like it. And voila! Savi Sharma’s Everyone Has a Story did the magic. I am proud you never turned back since then (though you did DNF a few books).
Thanks to your spirit, I have completed over 180 books in 7 years (still a lot to go). Tragic romances have been a constant love since the time you started reading Ravinder Singh and Ajay K. Pandey. Philosophical books also interest me now, but in the form of a fictional story. Feminist and queer stories are anther love. Let’s not forget social messages conveyed in motivational or love stories. There are also some non-preachy non-fiction books that I occasionally read. From simple plots with one-dimensional characters to liking books with multilayered, grey characters, we have come a long way. From contemporary authors (barring CoHo and the like) to Austen, Shakespeare and dabbling into Plath and Dotoyevsky, we have covered so many styles and stories.
It is not just the types of stories that have evolved, but also how the books are preserved and loved. Covering books with plastic covers to letting the pages go yellow and annotating them, we showed the books were loved (or at least, read). From not a single mark on books (and going berserk if anyone else did that) to underlining with pencils and writing the page number on the last page to revisit those quotes (cause my memory is of a goldfish).
For you, Hindi was much stronger than English (at least till 10th standard) until one teacher ruined the language for you. After some trial and error, your elder version finally completed reading a Hindi novel (and a anthology of poetry for kids) after 7 years. I will try to read Hindi books occasionally too, not to lose touch with the language again (in reading).
Lastly, this is just a thank you letter for not giving up despite some boring books. It is because of you that I am a bookdragon now, obsessed with headstrong feminist women, fictional men and the books themselves. Also a blogger and bookstagrammer at @thisisritika_j.
With love,
Your elder version.
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Nice coverage of your reading journey. Keep it up & go ahead.
Many best wishes.