Ten Years, Seven Hundred Books, One Kindle

When I moved to Delhi in 2009, the Eloor Library in South Ex was what sustained me during the initial days of my struggle to settle down in the city. The library, like all its other branches across Kerala and the key metros was well stocked and covered every notable genre. Sadly, the place shut down in 2014 and I still remember the librarian stoically asking why every branch I frequented seemed destined to close. (The Calicut branch, too, had closed by then )

After that the reading diet went for a toss but a toddler at home didn’t make me miss reading much. Just as I was settling into the new norm, Santosh, my senior from college started raving about his Kindle. I had the usual, standard snobbish response of the typical ‘reader’. How can a digital device make up for the pleasure of holding a book? What about the smell of paper? What will my bookshelf look like? What about the joy of visiting old-books stores? But Santosh being Santosh, did a hard sell and I finally got my Paperwhite in March 2016, weeks before my second daughter was born. She turns 10 this month and so did my Kindle!!!

It’s been one of the best investments I ever made. The first book that I purchased was Oliver Sacks’ memoir ‘On the Move’ and between that and my current read Patrick O’Brian’s biography of Picasso, I must have downloaded close to what, 700-800 books? My Goodreads profile shows 631 books tagged ‘Kindle’.

I read with the Kindle anywhere – while waiting for an Uber, a microwave beep, or a school bus; at check-in counters; in cabs and metros; on escalators; on the couch; between meetings; during boring conferences,; during movie intervals, in waiting rooms, hospitals, airports; on flights, trains, buses. Literally anywhere and anytime.

The real hack is to treat it as a substitute for doomscrolling. Ten pages of Tolstoy, RK Narayan, Roth, or Dickens will always beat ten minutes of mindless reels, no?

I don’t have a fancy bookshelf creaking under  the weight of books. Nor will my daughters discover world literature browsing through my bookshelf. And frankly, I don’t give a damn! I’ve read more than what I ever would have, thanks to Bezos.

I sometimes joke and tell Sruthi that, over the past decade, I’ve probably spent more time with the Kindle than with her!