Reading & Writing

As some of you might have guessed, I read quite a bit. I love reading. I read a book a week on average easy but I never would say I'm an avid reader. I'll say that when I ready a book a day on average, but unfortunately, not enough time for that in my present. And of all the things I read, there's been somewhat of a pattern. Poetry and history never leave, and current events never stay. But fiction, well that's the most amusing pattern of all. It gets added on to my poetry and history. But what happens is, I pick a book, and if it makes a mark, I pick the author. And then, until I've exhausted all possible means of having read all that's been writ by that author just short of buying all the books, I stick with them. Needless to say, the authors I know, I know rather well, as far as their writing goes.

Girls, are famed for shopping sprees. These were mine.

Never did return with less then 50 books. 

And for this pattern, always amuses me, when the author I picked writes romantic fictions. There are three such authors so far, and they write a lot. And I've read most of what they write. Although I might add, romance isn't quite the primary focus of their stories. It's more of a human connection thing. And plots are based on history and art. Thus, the reason I can't resist reading. Art, history and poetry, is a deadly combination for someone like me. The first time an author of romantic fiction got picked was when I read Mariana years ago by Susanna Kearsley. Then came Sarah Addison Allen with Garden Spells and Tasha Alexander with And Only to Deceive. They have very different but beautiful writing styles, a way to engross the reader deep in story that you can't leave and well then there are the stories themselves.

And because I'm in midst of reading Every Secret Thing by Susanna Kearsley (it all bout the mysteries of second world war) it accord to me what is so common between these three writers despite the obvious difference, that makes me love the books so much. They all, in every single book of theirs, quote my favorite poets.

Susanna Kearsley, she makes you travel in time. She gives you a taste of subtle magic in life that you end up wanting to question 'could that be real?' There is logic and science and they are both transcended by this simple beauty of unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions of life.  And reason I fell in love with her writing was because she puts a lot of stock in soul. Not in the mushy kind of way, but none of these three writers do that anyway. That probably would annoy me enough to avoid the books they wrote. But, in the spiritual, there's more than meets the eye, things beyond the human world sort of way. In short, my kind of way. Where soul matters, and definition don't work. Rather obvious where poetry would fit into that, isn't it?

And no matter the space of my quarters, they've always had room.

Sarah Addison Allen, I love because she writes as if baking a cake. Put different indigents with different origins into a bowl, mix them well and let them bake into a light fluffy sugary goodness. Ingredients are her characters, origins their stories, mixing and baking is their stories intermingling to create the one story you've been following and when it's done, you can just smell the deliciousness of it. And like in cooking, you'd put a pinch of love and just a little bit more that actually is just right enough of everything (or at least that's how I cook), she puts in a pinch of magic and in that 'just a little bit more' come the quotes and books form poets a writers I love. And because it 'a little bit more' of everything, there's little bit more of nature and gardens which has made me so fond of her. And the best part is, in these beautiful stories of hers, she puts out the unspoken horrors that women face in terms of abuses of all kinds. Her stories do come to neat endings, but not at all in the 'happily ever after' kind of way. More in the, this is how life is, ups a downs. You find the best of you and contentment you need to move on and live the best you can. No happily ever after, but strength to endure and triumph over anything that come's your way, even if it might take a bit longer than you wish for.

 Tasha Alexander, well even though it romance, she writes more of historic fiction full of mysteries. And her stories are full of no-nonsense propriety , elegance beyond measure, nobility with humility, the suffragists, back alleys of industrial revolution,  abundance of tea, and best of all travel, art, and poetry. Need I say more why I love them so much. And add it all and put it in Victorian Era with actual tit-bits of history. The Roman and Greek antiquities, the Persian empire in Constantinople, the impressionists from France to Amsterdam, Homer and Rumi, letters that transcend the language of beauty, the streets and gondolas of Venice, and the flawless gowns from House of Wroth. And in all of it, with all of it, a lady running amuck solving murders and questioning the insane formalities of London society. Of course, I love these books! How could I not? There's even a thief who steals art not for money but beauty, and he's got a great eye.    

And it'll always be impossible for a summer

to pass me by, without a good doze of books.

Anyway, all that, and from romantic fiction no less. What you pay attention to is on you really. As people we pay attention to the seemingly important things in world and miss the actual importance of life. Most of us do the same as readers. Now if it was something like 50 Shades, I doubt that even I could find anything worth in there. I guess it's a good thing that chances of that ever happening are as much as there's a chance of me ever smoking. Imagine though, what I get out of  reading history. And poetry, I could write books upon books on single verse let alone a whole poem or the entire works of a poet. As a kid, I'd once hoped to read as many books as I could. Soon after I'd finished and read and re-read the folk tales in Gurmukhi when I was all but 9 years old, I'd realized it didn't matter. It didn't matter how much I read and how many books I got to read. What mattered was if I read them well. If had read all that was said but not necessarily written. If I'd paid attention to things that were hidden but the most important. If I'd understood the feelings regardless of, if I understood the words. What mattered, what does matter is - what did I get out of them? And what was I going to do with it.

And what I do with it is write. Write to make sure that things that are meant to be handed on by time, keep moving. From one time to another, generation by generation, from one hand to the next. When a quill reads, it can do little but write. So, I write.