Day 26: 11 Things Life Is Too Short To Do

We are all usually swamped with more work than time to do it in. Plus, there is also more information that you can probably ever process in this lifetime. I have deliberately given up looking at must read books lists, have pruned my Feedly and am trying to become more goal oriented. And of late, I have realised that there are somethings that I just couldn't be worried about. I don't do them because I don't want to. Call it mid life realisation or whatever you want but I think life is too short to do things you don't want to. And here are a few things, in no particular order, I think we should consider -

Life is too short to:

Complete a bad book just because you started reading it

Drink bad wine 

Let others' opinions affect you

Be someone others want you to be

Spend time with people you don't like (just to please others)

Worry about being nice to people you don't care about 

Ponder over things you can't change

Not re-read books you love 

Not spend time with people you really love 

Be nice to people you hate just because it is rude not to

Be stuck in traffic (find a way out)

To wear clothes you don't like/want to just because someone decided it's in fashion

I am sure that if you give it some thought, you will come up with your list of things you think life is to short to waste on. Can you think of anything at the moment? Do get back and leave your comment when you do! 

This post is written for #NaBloPoMo which stands for National Blog Posting Month hosted by BlogHer every year. 

Day 3: How Many Books Have You Read This Year?

Getting lost in the sea of books! (Photo credit)

I Love reading. I can't be called a prolific reader - definitely not after I found some people on Twitter who have already finished 200 books this year! Having been a literature student for 5 years, I have had my fill of Shakespeare and Shelley, Dante and Dickens. I have also loved reading my share of awesome fiction like Gone with the wind and Shantaram. Or non-fiction books like Emotional Intelligence by Goleman or the Malcolm Gladwell books. Such books give a unique insight into the working of human mind and I find them quite insightful.

Since I belong to the transitional generation that moved from physical books to ebooks, I have seen both the worlds. I still read books in both medium. All the reading through college days, of course, was from a stack of physical books. It was like a full time job to finish novels and poetry texts so that I could start with the criticism of those books and prepare for exams. I read physical books pretty much through the entire last decade. I moved to Kindle a few years ago yet don't really enjoy the experience of reading ebooks. They are great to keep reading on the go and that's the only reason I have the app. I also have this habit of noting down names of books from bibliographies mentioned in other books. I noted down a dozen titles while doing a course on social psychology from Coursera about 4 years ago - never went on buy and read any of those though.

Reading has always been a big part of my life. Reading is to forget the world. You can't think of anything else while you are reading, right? While online exposure on Twitter helped me learn about new books - some of which I read or added to my list from bibiliographies - it has also added some sense of anxiety to my reading. While I have stopped looking at any must read books lists - except for occasional slips - there are times when some one mentions a title as a must read and I can't help but add it to what has now become a list of books-I-might-read-in-this-lifetime. And the ever growing list evokes this fear of - Oh my God! I'm never going to be able to finish reading ALL this! And the knowledge that some mortals have actually finished 200 books makes me feel like I have read about 4 books in my life! Even when I read a book, I feel a strange sense of anxiety to finish it fast and move on.

While I realise that I will never be able to read 200 books in a year, I definitely am working on this knot that forms in the pit of my stomach every time I start reading. I have started reasoning with that voice in my head which ushers in a sense of urgency every time I sit to read a book. For me, it's not a competition about reading as many books as the next person has. It's more about missing out on so much more there is to read. But then it isn't possible to read all books published ever, (Or is there?!) even if you stick to a few favourite genres. Plus, I think it also depends on the kind of books I read. Fiction gets done faster. But I also want to read thick fat books without worrying about how long it takes.

At the moment, I have enough books to last this year from my Amazon sale loot in August this year. I have already read a fair number of books from different genres this year and I am happy with it. Plus there is online reading where we get to learn so much.

How do you get your reading done? Are books obsolete yet with all the blogs and online content?

This post is a part of #NaBloPoMo hosted by BlogHer where I will write one post everyday this month.

Sophie Kinsella: Remember Me?

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella (Photo credit) 

The title of this post is significant for more than just the title of Kinsella's book. As you might have noticed that this is my first post this year. So it's also a question for you guys, remember me? Maybe you should read, comment and share some of my posts in my absence so that I know that you do! :)

Getting on with the real book, Since I discovered Sophie Kinsella a few years ago, she has become my comfort read. I have read most of her books and re-read them. (The cover page of another book that I am now re-reading mentions titles under her pseudo name that I haven't read. So i'm off to treasure hunt after this!). And I started the year with her for my light reads. I just finished, Remember Me? It's hard to talk about this book without giving away the plot. So please bear with me. You will still have fun reading it, which I strongly recommend. The story is about this girl-next-door who meets with an accident and wakes up in the hospital but it happens that this is after another accident 3 years later. Only she wakes up to find her memory stuck at the first accident. Her life from then to now is blank. How she deals with it, is the story. You'll be surprised to read the consequences of the 3 year lapse in her memory. And this is what set me thinking!

How long is 3 years in a person's life? Considering the phase you are in in your life, it could starting and finishing graduate school, going from being single to married, the birth of a child to a school going toddler, from employed to entrepreneur. Your friends might be different, your equation with the family might have changed. Or maybe not! Remember Me? is an interesting journey down someone's forgetful path! And this is exactly why the book is so riveting!

Think of yourself as you were at the beginning of 2013. Imagine waking up now with your life as it was in Jan 2013 and blank about the next 3 years! How was your life 3 years ago? How were you as a person? Less confident? More carefree? How glaring would the change in your life be in these 3 years? Interesting to ponder and discover? I am extra eager to know your responses in your comments. Think about it. I think it's a pretty interesting exercise!

7 books I look forward to reading in 2016

I took the Brunch Book Challenge this year and managed about 25 out of 30 books we were supposed to finish to complete the challenge. I realised that reading as part of a challenge was killing the joy of reading. I'd feel miserable when the counter wasn't moving fast enough. Actually, with all the other work, sometimes the counter wasn't moving at all! It felt like being a part of a race and losing all the time. So for next year, I have thought of books that I want to read in no hurry. Some of them are big, fat ones but I can take my own time to read them and actually enjoy reading.
So, here's the list:

1. Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg (Yeah, this one's still pending!)
2. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo (His Talk Like TED was sheer brilliance!)
3. Presence by Amy Cuddy - The woman behind the inspiring research on power pose
4. Authentic Story telling by Christophe Trappe - (just released)
5. Marilyn Atkinson's 3 books on coaching - to further my studies as a coach
6. Re-read The Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
7. The Social Animal by David Brooks (I need to go back and complete reading this one)

To me, all this books have meaningful learning for me rather than just numbers to complete a challenge. Apart from these, I also want to try and finish the Middle Earth series by Tolkien and the books of Ken Follet that I haven't read yet.

What does your reading list for 2016 look like? Share with the readers and let's inspire each other!

Back to books

i have always loved reading. i might sound crazy but the world of books fascinates me so much that its my secret wish to be able to read up all the books in the world! The excitement of looking forward to reading a book is unparalleled. i have read quite a few classics as a major in literature. But even after college, i always find reading soothing. It cuts me out from the real world and takes me into the world of the book and its characters, albeit make believe. It doesn’t matter whether the genre is fact or fiction, as long as it is interesting.

But as real life got busier, there has been less and less time to read. But i never forget to notice if i am not able to spare time for reading. i was thrilled when my husband introduced me to an ipad and had reading applications uploaded on it. Now i could read books on the move - even if i didn’t own an actual copy which would occupy space in my overcrowded apartment! It was a bonus that i could read before i went to sleep - my favourite time to read - with the lights off since an ipad is backlit. (i hate to have to get up and switch off the light just as i am blissfully dozing off reading!) i finished reading books i had from the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time just to enjoy having something to read. In fact, it felt like such an ultimate thing in reading technology that i even learnt to download a software that could convert ant format of books to ipad format (epub). i felt like being a pro to be able to actually download software!!

Getting my own Kindle reader this year was another high point furthering the goal of reading regularly. Light, small, handy and less straining on the eyes since the screen is not backlit but has a matte finish to duplicate the experience of reading a book. i once again went berserk converting books to .mobi format to do justice to Kindle’s capabilities of holding about 5000 books in its tiny self. i have more books uploaded on it than have the time to read.

Somewhere between the ipad and Kindle phases, i discovered a library in the neighbourhood (it’s been there all these years, only i found it recently!) Bingo! All those books neatly lined had me salivating to devour all of them one by one! i found and finished the whole of Shopaholic series (and Sophie Kinsella books replaced J K Rowling books as comfort reading). i got to read books by Kareena’s dietician and her fitness expert (sharing some of the secrets behind her hot-bod) and the latest book by Malcolm Gladwell. i try to pick up a mix of fact and mindless fiction depending on what I feel like reading.

But somehow after the initial euphoria of owning devices that made reading easy and on the go, i seem to keep going back to real books of the library. Even when i am traveling, i no longer look forward to reading on Kindle. i’d rather take my library book along.

What happened there?

Well, i have realised that technology, however convenient it makes reading, can never replace the experiential kick of having a real book. The actual act of touching and holding the book, turning its pages softly, saving it from any scratches and creases- especially if it’s bought spending money- during the reading process, the pleasure of hitting the i-finished-half mark and turning pages to check how many more pages to go are incomparable and no reading device in the world can ever offer that. In fact, the lure of a book shelf in a store and the fragrance of brand new books is second to none. (i am not kidding! The next time you are at a book store, open a book at random and sniff deeply to take in the best perfume in the world!)

i don’t know if this feeling has anything to do with the fact that i spent the first 20 yrs of my life in the previous century and grew up in the pen and paper era. Being gadget-friendly is only an acquired behaviour.  On the contrary, teenagers of this century seem to be absolutely at home with their smart phones and reading/gaming devices.

Reading is a habit that was always encouraged when we were kids. It is one of the virtues that would help us in the future and books are a constant companion, we were told. There’s no harm in using technology to access knowledge. But i think losing an era where one could savour reading real books saddens me. i remember when British Council Library in Mumbai went online and shut its physical locations, one of my friends lamented that our kids might never know the joys of going through piles of books in a library to select a book. True, i am sure my kids, used to having Google throw up links to the exact book that they want in just miliseconds, will pull a long face at the tediousness of having to go through racks and racks of books in a library to find what one wants to read. But you know what, kids, that is the real deal!!

2050 AD - Library

Sonny: Mummy, what are you going to tell me today?

Mummy: Today, I am going to tell you about what were called Libraries. When I was your age, we used to go to a library to borrow and read books. Every school and college also had a library for its students.

Sonny: How did you download them at a library? i just have to go my college website and choose the ebook i want to read. And did you have to travel all the way to one to get books? Interesting!!

Mummy: Everything couldn’t be downloaded sitting at home as you can do today! You had to go to a library to get books. There were stacks of books stacked subject-wise in a library. You had books for children, novels for teenagers, books on art, Science, History, Computers, Films and every subject you can think of. You could go to your interest area and look around for a book you might want to read and get it issued. And then you go back to the library to return the book after you finish reading it and get more issued.

Sonny: Woa...which meant more travelling? You had to carry the book everywhere you went? Gosh! That must be such a pain....travelling to the library so many times carrying all those books!

Mummy: Yes, it was at times! But it had a charm of its own.....you could spend hours with books around you for company. A library was a silent zone where you were not supposed to talk making it an ideal place to read in peace.

Sonny: And how many books can you have on shelves like that? And what about the space that you need to store all those books? you mean you actually had big spaces to physically store all those books? What a waste of space!!

Mummy: There were a few thousand books of all subjects put together. How many more could you explore in one go! And they had to be stored that way since that was the only way we could explore information before super pendrives and online libraries replaced physical libraries of our times!

Sonny: Well! i can't imagine walking all around shelves trying to look foe a book i'd like to read! My super pen drive can hold 50,000 ebooks and an equal number of journals with pictures and videos. So whenever i have free time, i just have to insert the pendrive on to my palmtop and click on the memory button to go to the book i was reading. i don’t have to go look for them anywhere or return them to anyone. i can also look for latest titles and topics on the web anytime...anywhere and just download them for free in seconds!

Mummy: Well! That’s called progress Sonny boy!!