Why Book Reviews

While walking along the beaches of Pondicherry in Septmeber 2021, I was inspired while in conversation with Archita (a usual happenstance in my case & a testament to the gem of a person that my wife is) to mindfully make time for reading books. Since then I have managed to channel that inspiration on a regular basis and have been reading consistently. The joys of reading a book are continually reinforced for me with every new book that I read - it is perhaps the best way to expand one’s mind, accrue empathy & slowly add wisdom, one layer at a time. With the confidence of having committed to realising one fruitful hobby, I was recently motivated to try and find a way to rekindle another one - writing. I had spent about 6 months attending a weekend creative writing group in my home town of Bengaluru in the summer of 2017 & as a result of the work I put in and the support I got from that group, ended up writing about 10 short stories. While it helped with catharsis at a time of personal duress, it was also a joyous experience in that it allowed me to give shape to my imagination. With enough thought, the best idea I arrived at to organically tie the 2 pursuits of reading and writing together was to start writing reviews of every book that I read. My goal also was to share the fascinating experience of reading these books and try and convince more people to read them. What crystallised the idea though was a casual conversation I had with my mother in which I happened to mention my idea of writing book reviews. She immediately lit up and said “This was one of the most enjoyable things I did in my youth for 3 years or so around 1982! I’m so happy you have found your own way to it!”. This was surprising to me because 1982 was not necessarily a time when people of her generation were writing book reviews as a hobby. I inquired more and she said “That was the only way for me to retain the value & learnings from reading a book! Almost every book that I read at the time was borrowed either because I could not afford to buy it or I could not afford the physical space needed to store it”. Those limitations notwithstanding, my mother literally put pen to paper and saved written summaries of every book that she read at the time. For me to have come to writing book reviews on my own almost seems like inheritance that was preordained. So, with prayers to Vighneshwara, the God of Bad Omens, here’s to documenting the value and essence of as many meaningful books as possible!