Word Addict...

                Witch that resides in my heart becomes rest less every-time I loiter down the only bookshop (actually there are many,only two of them have readable books) in my Town. The witch again goes wild, when her stumbling feet walks down College Street in Kolkata. My every visit to Kolkata compels the witch to go there and I feel immense joy running down my blood vessels

        I chanced upon Penguin blogspot about the modern methods of buying books how times have changed and how the writer feels about it... I was having personal thoughts to write about my evolution as a book addict , and the blog post  helped me to write my own..

                 Being a girl I know shopping is the best therapy to distress soul, but for me book buying is the biggest therapy which irritates my family. I still remember my first visit to College Street, it was in ninth grade. I went there and it started to rain, and my father got angry. But then fate showed me the bookshop out of so many calling me. A bald headed man was so happy to see me. So a fourteen year old me got upgraded to "Madame". For first time in life I was given so much of respect, the man overlooked my father, Mom, Aunt and her son who were there with me. I gave him my long list of books.. So I bought my favorite Paulo Coelho's books and other different writers. "Look he is smiling as he found a scapegoat like you" was the only comment given by my father that evening, I had spent three thousand bucks on books. I went back to maternal house so happy that still a smile flies at its thought..  

          So whenever book-fairs take place, my Mom makes it sure that my pockets are starving, or my purse is below poverty line. But she forgets I save up all year for the book-fair, so I have secret savings and many thing I cant revel. Every year its same story, my Mom drags me out of book-fairs..I am guilty too, when I go I have a book list in mind. As soon as I step in, the witch shouts " I want that book, I  haven't read that, who is that writer, graphic novels" In general the witch wins.. I take too long time to choose the books.. I enter a trance, I close my eyes I run my hands over them, I feel them talking and the one which tempts me seduces me gets a place in my bookshelf... Its the same story since Fifth grade. I have been communicating  with books and Mom (though herself a voracious reader, but not blind buyer) has been pulling me out..

      Our era is dominated by e-banking, online shopping and everything at one click and go.. I got my debit card a year back, so my fingers were itching to try Flipkart. But my super intelligent Elder sister used my ignorance about Internet to keep me away from online realism. Its a open secret I know next to nothing about advancement in modern world. I like to be the witch who buries her nose in her books, watches youtube, does Facebook and Twitter and reads blogs, bugs her soul sister and two besties midnight... But this ignorance changed, my Brother-in-law is really a sweet person who taught me the simple world of online shopping which my sister had fictionalized to a gothic-novel. 

      So in last one week I have spent little more then two thousand bucks on buying books from Flipkart. Best things about online buying is you get more discount, and you can glance at various books at same time.. The temptation level is also very high for me, I just feel that all the books need a chance to meet me. I stop myself from doing so, as I have regretted   before for falling for less expensive and flashy covers. Now days writing market is filled with what one of my classmate and good friend terms as "Trash writing" so when online one should avoid those commercial writings or what I call them as "Male Chick-lits".. Online you have all the time in world, no mother to drag you, a debit card that shows your limit and you can always visit back.

 To a Bohemian Heart the Charm of walking down College Street can never be replaced by Online book buying. Online shopping is something I would choose over traditional way only for one reason that my small town doesn't have good bookshops. Though I will buy online, I am still saving up for the winter book-fair. Book fairs are best place to meet unknown writers published before my birth, best place to close your eyes and just smell new pages, sometimes confusion is what the witch in me chooses over conventional. I can walk the lanes of College Street for weeks without being interrupted. I can stand in the little Bookshop for hours just staring at them..

Various paths exist to buy books, in the end what matters most is a good read, one can walk the road visit bookshops, or sit and order online, the aim is universal - TO READ.. So when I buy the books from bookshop, I smell them and drown into the magic words printed and when my books are delivered I get excited to see the fancy  packing and the few trifle gifts like bookmarks and sometimes a t-shirt that are given, but then again I drown into the words... 

  P.S- There are many addictions in world, Word Addiction is most profitable, healthy and noble of all..

thanking you to bear with me
paulOaries