I used to be a voracious reader back in college. My mind (and stomach) was like the Grand Canyon, ready to devour anything and everything that came my way. Somewhere along the way, sadly, I lost that appetite for reading (unfortunately, my appetite for food remains untouched, as is evident by my 34″ jeans). I blame it on the convenient access to superfast broadband and that I spend 90% of my time in front of a computer or a television. I can feel myself turn into a sloth. This realization dawned on me when I saw that I spent my last 2 weekends at home, nursing a Friday night hangovers, while staying bundled in my down comforter, watching the three Lord of the Rings movies. Epic fail. And as Obama said- “We are the change that we seek.” I’ve decided to make a few conscious changes to my life, which include, getting back to reading at least 1 book a month. In order to force myself to make it a habit, a buddy from work and I have signed up with a book club that meets once a month in the city. In addition to reading books from a variety of genres, this is also a fabulous way to network and meet new people having diverse backgrounds.
My first meet with the club is today evening. And the book that we’re reading is horror/fantasy novel called “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury. I remember reading a science fiction short story by Bradbury back in school, and I am aware that he was one of the most celebrated science fiction writers of our day. However, I felt that the book was not my cup of tea. (To a large extent, I feel it’s because of the books that I have been reading for the past few years. My personal library is packed with potboilers by some of the most successful and prolific writers of the last 2 decades- Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Dan Brown and so on. Not quite what some would consider to be “great literature”, but they were easy to speed-read and goddamn entertaining!). As my coworker quite aptly describes it, “his style of writing is rather whimsical”. 20 pages into the book, and I’m very close to pulling my hair out, take the easy route and simply netflixing it. But I didn’t. I hung in there, powered through the book, skipping paragraphs when my head started to ache (and also because, I had a deadline and needed to finish the book last night). The flowery, poetic style of writing did get a whole lot easier to read and follow once I got accustomed to it. Oddly, the prose, reminded me of those Sunday mornings while growing up in India, when my Dad would play his Rabindrasangeet cassettes containing poems/ passages and songs by Rabindranath Tagore and sing along. Nostaglia. Sniff sniff.
The book details a few days in the lives of two 13 year old boys Jim and Will. A carnival arrives in the town and omnious things start happening to people. There is a definite presence of evil in the air and it is up to the two innocent boys to save the town. The book delves into themes of good vs evil, dark vs light, the dark side that exists in each one of us, and the price we’re willing to pay for getting our secret desires granted.
We’re meeting at a place called Table 12 in Easy Village. Never heard of it, average reviews on Yelp. Yay for free wi-fi though.
More to come after the meet. Ciao folks!
