Bibliobibuli (those who read too much)

“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable sensations.”

Vladimir Nabokov

As a sensitive, impressionable kindergartner

Learning alphabets and words I did suffer

 

Slowly and painstakingly, once I had gained

Mastery over the printed word, my developing brain

Found nothing more fascinating than books-

I learnt to read hidden in crannies and nooks

At a gathering of adults engrossed in conversation

I would slip away much to my mother’s consternation

Find a cozy corner and settle down with a book

Nothing outside those pages merited a look

I learnt to enter stories, characters befriend

I prayed for positive twists at the end..

 

As years went by, life did not remain

Uncomplicated, there were moments of pain

Through every step of my life, I can say

Books were my companions along the way

Milestones in my life I could measure

By change from one to another genre

 

Now I go through life at a dizzying pace

Where a good book is still a saving grace

It helps me wind down and allays

My anxiety in many different ways

Now I view reading as a private affair

As a stimulating discourse extraordinaire

Between the reader and the writer alone

The experience of reading is my very own

 

 

I am a bookaholic a thousand times over

And  I have a responsibility to shoulder-

To teach my child to learn and discover

In the printed word the same sense of wonder

That I had found when I was his age-

The excitement of turning every single page

 

The love of learning I’d like to instil

His mind’s corners with imagination fill..

(P.S. This photograph shows the books I am currently reading.)