Some Thoughts About Books

Aristotle in his Poetics had said that a child learns by imitation. I guess that holds true for every aspect of our lives. We everyone around us seem to enjoy reading, we would be tempted to pick up a book every once in awhile. Quite frankly reading habits are encouraged. No child would take up a book on his own, if he doesn't see his parents reading him bed time stories or telling him tales. For my own part, Thakurmar Jhuli (collected Bengali folktales) was a great part of my life when I was younger. My grandmother would tell us the stories. Sadly, she passed away when I was five. I don't think she knew I wanted to be a writer someday, for I came to that decision when I was six years old.

The point of this blog post is not about my career wishes but about books and reading habits as a whole. Really good books are very hard to come by, and even when you do come by them, you are disappointed to learn it didn't do that well in the market. Or it never really gained the popular momentum.

So I thought, besides scribbling things, related to writing, a lone poem, or a stray thought, I would like to give you feedback on some of the books which are generally given amiss. And no - these books won't be the new releases. It might be from my syllabus, it might be out of my syllabus. It could date back to 200 BC, or it could have the foresight into the future. I really don't know.

I'm quite thankful that I pursued Comparative Literature. Because without the help of this subject, I would've lost out on a lot lovely and wonderful books. Because of our unconventional take on literature, we get to learn more.

To all those who believe we study superficially...all I can is, well - 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.'