So there's an ongoing trend going on among the book-loving people of Hive. The chain started from @nicxi I believe, and I hope she doesn't feel bothered with these incessant notifications! Yeah sorry about that, mate!
This is a straight-up Q&A thingy and I will not fill it up with rambling as I usually do. Let's go at it.
1. What is the first book you remember reading as a child?
I first read "The Ugly Duckling" and a collection of Aesop's fables when I was about 8-9. I was genuinely moved by The Ugly Duckling and I still remember some portion of it, even though I've never revisited the story later on.
The story is a Danish fairy tale where a baby swan is hatched by a momma duck after the eggs are somehow switched. Now the baby swan is black and perceived as the "ugly duckling" by all. The story takes the reader on a journey of misery, acceptance, loneliness, and longing. Although this bit I realized only as a grown-up.
2. What is the best time to read?
I don't have any fixed schedule for reading. I read all day long, a bit now, a bit then. A few minutes now, 3 hours straight later on. It's all erratic. I read while I eat, go for a walk, do my chores. Even when I'm taking a shower.
Although I do have some favorable time zones I can read huge chunks at a time. Namely in the evening and before I sleep.
3. In what format do you prefer to read: Digital, paper, or both?
I read on e-readers because phone/laptop/pc/tablet screen is pretty bad for reading, and they kind of hurt my eyes if I try reading on them. Fortunately, E-readers (like Kobo, Kindle) don't have that problem as they don't emit light.
I also listen to audiobooks along with the ebook. Audiobooks have been a game-changer for me as I can listen to them almost anytime I want to. This creates many opportunities to read on the go and as you are exposed to reading material more and more, the better you can concentrate later on. It's like a feedback loop. And monotonous chores do not seem all that bad when you are listening to something interesting!
But no paper books at all. Even when I have a paper book available at hand, I get the audio or ebook version of it first, and then read it.
I used to read paper books even 10 years ago when the alternatives weren't available (technically audiobooks are here since the 1930s but I'm sure you get the point). But nowadays I don't feel comfortable with paper books at all. They are heavy, require a lot of space, are prone to water damage, and don't have many functions like annotation, real-time dictionary support, customizable fonts, margins, etc.
Imagine being forced to read a book in the tiny-hard-to-read-font it was printed! ***wink..wink****
4. What distracts you the most when you read?
Certainly people. Especially by those who feel inclined to talk to me about their problems. I try to lead a detached life but people can easily get me derailed.
Then there's crypto space and alerts. When the market moves, I get alerts, and usually based on the alerts I have to make decisions. These are the times I'm forced to reroute my attention.
And of course, If I'm subconsciously perturbed by something else, I get distracted. This does happen a lot in some days and I have to retrace a portion of the book—sometimes over and over again. Which is not fun at all. But normally I can keep my concentration on a book for hours on end. Modern problems such as social media, the allure of the internet, and short attention spans are not in my dictionary.
5. Favourite genre?
I read a lot of literary classics. Now, they really cannot be dubbed as a genre, as they come in many genres and forms, I'm lumping them up for convenience. Favorite authors are — Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Albert Camus, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Werner Herzog etc.
I love high-fantasy (where the author creates an entire imaginative reality, people, races, cultures, languages etc). Favorite books - Malazan Book of The Fallen, The Lord of the Rings, The Earthsea Cycle.
I do enjoy sci-fi quite a lot, Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Daniel Keyes being some of my favorite writers.
And lastly, I enjoy reading non-fiction sociology, history, and science books, like Why Nations fail, Sapiens, The uninhabitable earth.
Unlike most of what I read, these are very much contemporary titles. Literature doesn't get updated
but the collective knowledge of humanity does.
It's been a while since I last wrote something, but I just couldn't pass up this opportunity to babble. Thank you for making it happen @nicxi. :)
You can read more of my film and literature related articles on my hive blog page.
