A Blessed Curse!

When I was about 9, I was forced to bed rest for four months straight. First I had an accident where I fractured my leg and injured my arm. I had barely recovered from that when I had typhoid fever for two months. Hellish as those four months were, they gave me a gift which I shall be grateful for throughout the rest of my life. It gave me passion for reading.

I always liked reading, but in those four months when all other usual activities were taken away from me, books were my solace. A librarian neighbour used to bring some books home, and other family friends also brought books as get-well present. Since then, I have LOVED books. I can live without great many things if I must…I can even give up computer and Internet if I MUST…but life without books would be but an empty shell.

Books are my precious possessions. I never give them away. I only lend them to people I am sure would look after them. Even my cheapest of book picked up from a budget store gets the same royal treatment. There is even a strange sort of pleasure in just looking around the room and looking at piles of books all around me. The bookshelf weighed down by the sheer amount of books crammed on the shelves.

I have been to thousands of book shops in several countries - huge modern bookshops, antique bookshops, second-hand bookshops, charity bookshops - and I have been to many many libraries, just walking amongst the isles of books, revelling in the smell and the sight of them. Yet amongst all these places, there is one that stands out.

One of the oldest libraries in the world - Bodleian Library at Oxford is the best place I have ever been for the books. Just stepping inside Duke Humphrey’s library, looking at the old wood shelves and a balcony laden with books, I felt sheer joy. It was really disappointing that visitors are not allowed to stay there (for good reason), or that I could not spend much time there. I can imagine sitting in that old library, day after day, poring through those amazing ancient volumes. Merely to touch those priceless books would be an experience.