Random Musings

I got my earliest introduction to the pleasures of reading, from my father. He was an avid reader, and consumed a lot of books. He was very diligent with some of his self-development and management boos reading. He would make notes, re-read the chapters, and in short, ensure that he absorbs the book to the max.

I picked up the habit and would read a reasonable amount of books and magazines, when I could. I used to read fiction as a student, but have more or less stopped reading fiction for last 10-15 years. I get all my fixes of fiction from movies!

But I have tried to keep pace with non-fictional reading all these years.

During the period of 9-10 years when we were nurturing our Internet startup, Homeindia.com, time was really sparse. And the reading volumes fell significantly. I used to miss reading, and used to feel miserable when I did not read a book for 4-5 months sometimes.

But then, I discovered audio books! They were a God sent. I had long commutes to work, and I managed to use these well, while devouring one audio book after another. It was a great habit to form again.

While a printed book is always a preference, as you can stay on a page, ponder over the thought, think about how it fits your own situation, before turning the page over, the same is not possible in an audio book. The audio book keeps moving ahead, and you have to strive to ensure that you keep the concentration. But this one disadvantage aside, I value the fact that I can at least manage to cover books, rather than not doing so at all!

I graduated further, after a couple of years, to the iPod. And this opened up so many more avenues. For one, the audiobooks came on the iPod, so I did not need to carry CDs around.

But more importantly, with the iPod, I got introduced to the world of Podcasts. I have over time, subscribed to so many different topics of podcasts, and these have enriched me across a wide variety of subjects, and I have enjoyed them tremendously.

I continue to listen to podcasts and read audio books, regularly, now, on the iPod.

What saddens me as I look around me – to my friends, family, colleagues – is that they all read so litle these days. In fact I see a drastic reduction also in the newspaper reading habits.

How will these people enhance their knowledge, their skills? The knowledge on any subject stays so superficial without the accompanied reading support?!

I am so glad for my interest to read, and for having hit upon audio books and the iPod, which have been able to keep my reading habit going strong!