Blessings Called Books

The joy of opening a parcel of books!

 

“I have sometimes dreamt that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards- their crowns, their laurels , their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble-the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say , not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, ' Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading.”

― Virginia Woolf, How Should One Read a Book?

 

The reading life of an ardent reader has been a mixed bag of experiences during this pandemic. While on one end there is an entire shelf to read, on the other end our favourite bookstores have shut shop. Our happy places where we find knowledge, solace, and company especially the long standing old school bookstores seem like they have been engulfed by the unknown and mysterious forces of the Bermuda Triangle, as though Amazon and Flipkart was not enough.

Things got a little better over the last two weekends when we literally screamed our hearts out saying:

“Mine!”

This was for all those precious books during the weekend activity by TWICE TOLD on WhatsApp, the books were for a claim on a first come first serve basis. Throughout the day we bonded with fellow readers across India and got to know what everyone reads, the cherry on cake was the many genres and titles that we came across.

My ‘to read’ list has definitely changed, in fact increased! Here are some additions to my shelf from Navin Bookstores, a bookstore cum library in Mumbai based out of Versova, Aram Nagar Thank you Nishant Soni, for carefully packing these precious treasures from your shelf. 

The treasures added to my bookshelf

A special thanks for the ‘lost and found’ book Celebration of Cells which only goes to show your dedication for books and readers. It must have been quite a task finding it in your wonderland.

Lost and found!

Each book that you have sent is prized possession. We did not buy books from you; we borrowed some esprit and wisdom.

Also, I found a touching note in one of the books on it’s first page by a son to his mother. And that’s why books like these are not to be called ‘second hand’ , they are only ‘pre loved’, immensely.

 

Speechless!

“Aren’t we blessed, we who love books?”

― Frances Maureen Richardson

-R.

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