10 months, 3 weeks ago

On re-reading books

Childhood and adolescence felt electrifying and endless, full of growing pains and restlessness, skinned knees and paper cuts. “Childhood stretches out unlike any other time – but you blink, and you’ll miss it.” My brother, cousins, and I sometimes acted like we were living out a Famous Five plot while doing mundane things, like giving the neighbourhood stray puppies milk or making them homes out of cereal boxes and newspaper. In these moments – when life feels less full of epiphanies and more littered with lingering confusion – I find myself devouring old books, which feel good for lost days, or when the world feels like it’s on fire. While my reading habits have expanded into various other genres since, there comes a time, often on rainy days, when I hole myself away briefly in a world that I’m familiar with, where wonderful and bad things happen – but these are all measured and contained, and I can focus, one page at a time, on a plot I know like the back of my hand. “Books can teach us things we sometimes forget as we grow up.” Life won’t be all about navigating mazes and having picnic lunches and tracking down bad guys without adult supervision.

Hindustan Times
World Reading Books Feel Old Things Felt Characters

Discover Related