In Haruki Murakami's book Norwegian Wood, there's a character. Nagasawa, and without giving any spoiler to the book, I want to give a quick briefing of an interesting concept that he brings out in the book.
Toru Watanabe, the protagonist is at one point talking to one of his senior, Nagasawa, at his hostel. They are talking about their reading habits, Nagasawa points out an interesting rule that he follows while reading books. He reads only those books whose authors have been dead for at least 30 years (thus also meaning he reads books that are at least 30 yrs old duh). And he gives interesting reasoning behind this:
"t's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature, but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short... If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. That's the world of hicks and slobs. Real people would be ashamed of themselves doing that." - Nagasawa
And this reading "mantra" has stuck with me ever since I finished Norwegian Wood. (Though a little paradoxical that I picked this "mantra" from Murakami's book, who is still alive and not dead for 30 years now.) However snobbish this rule may sound but if you are a little serious reader, or at least trying to a little serious reader, this rule works perfectly. I know, contemporary literature has its charms too, sometimes contemporary literature is the only way people actually start reading books. For a beginner, Chetan Bhagat and Noveoneel Chokroborty is a perfect start, but that's not the way to move forward. Sometimes to move forward we need to go backward and that's the perfect place to start if you want to actually enjoy literature and not just post "Instagram-worthy" pictures of books.
If you want to learn about human nature, its pain, and suffering, its happiness and ecstasy, backward is the way, because in contemporary literature, so much is based on marketing, like "The subtle art of not giving a fuck" or "Think like a Monk" are the most generic books I have ever read, but they are popular only because everyone else is reading and social media loves people who pretend to know and read things. Actually reading Albert Camus or Nietzche is much more beneficial than reading those. I recently went to a book fair and saw a person pick "Everything is Fucked" and ask his friend "everyone is posting this book, isn't it? I should have this too." Now going to eat at a new restaurant out of peer pressure is acceptable, but reading a book because of peer pressure is unacceptable. If you want to read books for a long time and actually keep on enjoying that, start reading old books. Read books, not for show, but to understand the value of good writers and good writing.
Read Saratchandra's Ramer Sumati or Bankimchandra's Durgeshnandini or Premchand's Gaban or Shakespeare's Hamlet, or anything in that others are not reading. Because "If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."
Comments
Post a Comment