Reading Habits
Harry Potter’s new book, 7th one in the series, is coming tomorrow to stores worldwide. I am glad to live at this age when kids look forward to reading books with such devotion. My own daughter is a fan of Cam Jansen and her mystery series, she turned 5 a week ago 
It reminds me of my own younger days.
I started reading Tamil books at 4 (Rani comics, Diamond comics) and English ones at 5 (Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle). To date I have never read a Hindi story outside of textbooks 
, mostly because I did not have access to it.
The first Amar Chitra Katha I got was Velu Thampi, a freedom fighter from Kerala who at the end hid in a temple where the British troops found him, if my memory serves me right! I bought it at Maharaja Departmental Stores in Besant Nagar, actually made my dear uncle buy it for me for Rs. 10/-
I never bought a lot of books, mostly borrowed it from friends or library or from friends who got it from their library. I was very fortunate in that I was studying with kids who were into reading too and whose parents traveled outside of India and hence I got access to US & UK books. Enid Blyton was my favorite primary school times author.
I did develop a really bad reading habit, I realized it just 2 years ago. I will only read books referred to me by friends. If it is a new author’s book, I will finish the entire line by the same author until it is exhausted. After that I will go through a phase where I wouldn’t read anything for a while, a long while. Pretty much a feast or famine scenario. It went like this:
Elementary:Tinkle, Amar Chitra katha ->
Upper Elementary: Enid Blyton [Famous Five, Secret Seven]->
Middle: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys -> Agatha Christie [Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple] ->
High: Sidney Sheldon [the first one being Stars Shine Down]
Senior High: Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the wind, Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett, Mario Puzo’s Godfather and the Sicilian.
Once my dad caught me reading Barbara Taylor Bradford, that was the end of it. Also, my dad had this really annoying bad habit, he will suddenly read parts of books I am in the process of reading, that was an irritating CONTROL he had over me. That is how I felt about it. Now that I have a daughter and I try to keep a a watch on the tiniest things she does, I know he was just being protective.
A dear friend suggested that I read ONE novel of the author I presently like, make a mental list of things I would like to read next of the same author BUT move on to a different author. At least read his/her one book before I return to the previous author. Try more authors in between if I can. I have tried this, and this is wonderful. This way I get exposed to different kinds of wrtings and never find myself searching for books since i always have a mental list.
Too bad I have developed a new bad habit , I have been reading books about Bill Clinton by various people, all good:
Living History - Hillary
First in Class - forgot
My Life - Bill
