========== ========== ==========
(Sometime towards the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025)
Writing this "review" is a self-reflective process. I just want to have some free time, a couple of hours, with no intentions, no aims, and reflect; reflect and then write how my year was in books, a year I tried to let my false pride not be hurt if my heart leapt at a good thin(!) book.. but those are hard to scavenge for. So, (am) starting it now, and will keep adding to it, perhaps tomorrow(🤞), perhaps next weekend, or the one after, ... who knows(!), because otherwise it will never get done. And I know very well in my heart and in my mind (although heart just pumps blood and etc.,), that I will deeply enjoy and absolutely relish thinking about my past year in books and how my own perspectives matured during that time of a whole year regarding my own reading habits, and life, in general.
...
coming soon, my dear void ❤️, coming soon 🤞
...
========== ========== ==========
Accompanied by cheesecake and coffee. I made it! ☃️😍🥰
This was the year of audiobooks and short stories for me. As I started a new position as a post-doc, my expectations from my yearly readings were low. Probably because my usual work also involves reading, though of a different kind, more intense and purposeful perhaps. On weekdays, especially, I find it hard to read even the books I really want to and have been looking forward to read for ages. So, the first "audiobook" whose entry I added on goodreads was an audio-adaptation of 'Debi Choudhurani' by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (my some kind of great-great-ish grandpa, and I, along with many proud members of my family, are woefully ignorant about his works, and most of us will remain so forever!). These audio adaptations, done under the famous 'Sunday Suspense' series, are done by Radio Mirchi, an Indian Bengali radio channel, which has a cult following. I don't know if they "qualify" as audiobooks as per goodreads' definition but in absence of a good audible-level curated and famed platform for Bangla, this has impacted our society a great deal. I remember the mark it left on us since 'Chander pahar' came out. So, to answer no one's question, yes, I think all those adaptations ARE very-very worthy audiobooks.
My 2023 and the start of 2024 weren't that great. I finally gave up on trying to control my neurodivergence and, somewhat associated with my neurodivergence, and somewhat due-to-other-reasons, controlling depression just-and-just based on talking therapy (CBT). CBT was a great leap of progress from trying to do it all by myself, starting late 2020. I, finally, after being implored by my therapist and psychiatrist, and NOT-AT-ALL by many people, started medications. It did wonders. I still had a lOOOoooOOOoooOOOng strings of unfinished, half-read, quarter-read, 23.456% read, 52.31% read books, but in general I felt happier and more positive, and as the year progressed, these good impacts became clearer. The second book was a book that my dear little book club wanted to read. It was 'Leonard and Hungry Paul'. At first I though it would be too "woke" for me. It wasn't. It resonated. Leonard and hungry Paul were simple, unremarkable and, from a like-to-another-set-of-likes - two definitely neurodivergent protagonists minding their own business, and not exactly fitting but still managing somehow in a world ill-designed for them. Absolutely loved it. A warm, slow bed-side read for happy sleep-times knowing that there are similar beings out there, some recognised, some not, somewhat recognised, somewhat not,
and their stories appeal to "normal" people too (I although I gave 'Normal People' a very mixed reaction), although (another!) what even is "normal"? 🤔
I finally finished Nora Ephron's set of essays. She used to feel bad about her neck! I can understand that. And as big a fan that I am of her films, I became one of her essays and her wit too. Her more controversial book is on the charts this year, let's see how that appeals to me and if it does, or will it come across as spiteful, as some people say it is. The woman usually makes a lot of sense, in a manner of speaking that is.
I read Kafka for the first time, his story of 'the Hunger artist', and now could finally understand who and what Sigrid always raved about, and she read him in German. I resorted to my Nancy Drew's and Sunday Suspense audiobooks, which I resorted to most of the times, every once-, rather, many ones-in a while during difficult spells throughout the past year. I read many filling kiddie books to increase my goodreads number (how shameful! but I am hugging and loving my anxiety these days in imperfect manners!) and discovered Amelia Bedelia, wooo! People say she was neurodivergent too! What's happening!?
I also read my first Philip Pullman, 'Lyra's Oxford'. The book had appealed to me since I live in Oxford these days, and walk everyday the street beside the one he write most about i.e., 'Turl street'. I went to Turl street, now-a-days between an amazing Italian restaurant 'Gusto' (there are many Gustos though, we were once fooled) and All Saints' Church, and tried to imagine the architecture, the nature of the spires that he put down on his paper. His writing style isn't something I took an immediate fancy to, (maybe I have become too old for that?) but the charm of Oxford in his writings makes my everyday life more beautiful. It makes me feel fortunate and thankful. I attended a book launch where he was a speaker. It was not a book of his, but most people had come to see him. Not surprising. he signed my copy, asked my name and said if he can use my name for one of the characters in his books!!! whOAAA!!! How wonderful! One of those instances in life that you don't forget. But I didn't give him the note with my name written down on it, and I am worried he might forget it. Or worse, he couldn't actually pronounce it and was just being polite! Or worse-er, what if he remembers and it is a villain? Or, fAAAr worse-er-er, a character not much needed killed-off rather soon as a plot element! Ah, okay, okay! Let me not get too much ahead of myself and just be happy that he heard my name, and gave it the most wonderful compliment. I find it often very difficult to make people pronounce my name correctly. I think after being in the UK for so long, even I have forgotten how to pronounce my own name when I introduce myself sometimes. I say what the British do. Woah, unreversed-unreversed-so-not-reversed colonialism! Even in India, outside Bengal it was so, and I used to adapt a pronunciation more suitable to people there. In the UK, I have done the same, but keep reminding my closest friends from time to time though, although less often than I ought to! 😉
I read the much hyped 'Lessons in Chemistry'. I understood why it became famous and what I liked and disliked in it. In a way, the book is for patience-less people like me, courtesy its pace, but it lacked a depth that I had expected from it. Also, a story about a woman in science, is a concept I absolutely love, that it became so famous is even better news, but I wish it had more maturity in its plot and lines. 🫣
I also heard 'The Testament of Mary', and fell in painful love with Meryl Streep all over again. I loved her voice, her emotional orations as Mary, so much that it is difficult to comment on the writing. I cannot separate her voice and her ability to emote through her voice from the writing and its quality. Downing of this realisation and critical perspective is something that my favourite audible books, which are always autobiographies, could never provide. I also finished Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' on my third try (I think). It was whitewashed (the irony!) for sure, but you cannot take away from the part of her life that she has chosen to show. It is worth a hear (or an ear or a listen, or WTF!). There were moments, even with my cynicism, when I had tears in my eyes.
This year I tried to not feel guilty that some of my entries were short reads, or basically short stories, or kid's books, and only with their help did I manage to finish my reading challenge. It was an even bigger challenge not to feel guilty. Then I remembered the words of wise reminder from my friend Matt that I read for pleasure and knowledge, for my own gain and happiness, not to prove a point or finish a challenge. Easier said than done, but I tried, and progressively succeeded. As long as the read adds to your life, it is a countable book for a "challenge".
Overall, the volume was less this year. That, as I mentioned above, was in itself a personal challenge to overcome - that associated guilt! But now as I look back from the other side of the year, it was a good year of reading and growth and happiness through reading. Maybe without the heavy burden of expectations, and finally being able to be away for good from the video medium (which I count as perhaps 2024's greatest victory, yaya! 💃💃💃) which has been my worst addiction, nothing less, making me progressively unhappy, and with the practice from 2024, maybe I will be able to be less anxious and read more enjoyably in 2025. Let's see!🤞 I am hopeful. ❤️
Happy reading, my dearest void (not that I am ghost, and progressively less like Ben)! 🙃
