After more than two and half years I have visited our district library today to start reading the books borrowing from there again, I just stepped into the parking area a blow of air carrying the essence of the books made me nostalgic, there is a special attachment with this essence, I have always loved it so much that I can’t explain in words, there was a time when I used to feel this smell each and every day almost.

All the readers are well acquainted with the smell of the books, different types of smells and a deep bonding with those.

The more I went inside the more intense the smell became and when I finally entered in the room situated in the first floor I was totally drown in the memory lane, so beautiful those days were…”where have you been for so long ?” I felt like the books are asking me silently

The same scenario…those racks, those genres placed in the allotted shelves, that same old table situated in the middle of the room, and surprisingly that same librarian there…”I thought you have got retirement” I asked him, “no, not yet”…he replied with a smile.

Placing the card and a hundred rupees note I looked at him,

“No need to pay money, some rules are under modification, till then no one have to pay any monthly fair”…he informed and added

“Check the books.”

While checking the English language fictional books I asked

…what about the readers now a days, is the frequency same or not?

The days are no more like before, the frequency of the readers have decreased a lot…he replied with a sigh.

It was not much surprising for me coz in last few years I have hardly met any youngster who has the habit of reading books outside the study related ones.

This is the second library with which I have a very deep and special bonding. The first one is my village library from where I used to bring books for my mom and later I also started reading, I can still remember that book with ghost stories those snatched my sleep for more long time during the initial stage of my high school days.

The second one is this library situated in my hometown, there was a time when I used to visit it almost every day, I can still remember…one day noon I brought a novel from there containing more than thousand pages and returned it exactly in the next day, when I was entering the gatekeeper was surprised to see me and asked being highly curious “have you finished it?”, I replied with a smile.

Actually I did not sleep that night being totally engrossed in the book and this was not only the first time rather there are countless nights I have spent without sleeping, it has happened many times that after completing the book when I was thinking to go to bed I was surprised to look at the clock, opened the window to be sure and when I found its already 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. I dropped the idea of sleeping and went for morning walk or morning cycling.

So many memories are attached with this library and the books…

Now coming to my reading habit…

It happened few times that after bringing a book from there when I just started reading I remembered that I have read it earlier and also remembered all the stories, so I started to write down the name of the books I have read earlier also with the intention to keep a record that how many books I have read from this library and here is the data…

Of nine years of continuous connection with the library I have read more than 500+ books and 800+ stories separately (some books are the collection of the short stories).

After writing three book reviews during Blogchatter A2Z e book carnival I received a complimentary copy of a book written by my fellow blogger Murthy Sir to write a review and this is how I got the interest to write more book reviews so started visiting library again.

Surprising fact :-

The confusion in my mind which is still unsolved is…whom should I give the first place according to “Creativity”?… Satyajit Ray or Guy Da Maupassant? Though I don’t qualify to judge them but as a view of point of a reader I have always been confused.

When I was thinking to write book review bringing books from library the first book that knocked into my mind is “100 selected Short stories” all written by Maupassant, not only I remember the cover rather most of the stories there and surprisingly I got the same book yesterday.

I brought this book in the year 2014, see the picture…

And, returned it when I and my sister both completed reading.

Books have always been my best friends…who never have cheated me rather have helped a lot in the journey of life whenever I have faced any problem…and it’s true for every reader.