When the pandemic hit us around this time last year, it caught us off-guard. We were terribly unprepared and inept at dealing with the situation. However, this time you need to buy good books before next pandemic hit the world. As exactly a year later, as the pandemic threatens to punch the clock again and with a bigger bang than before. There are some lessons we have (hopefully) learnt that we can apply to make it a more comfortable, if not fulfilling experience. Splurge on sanitizers and disinfectants. Definitely stock up on toilet paper. Practise meditation and work out regularly, if you don’t want to end up with three more layers of fat when it ends. The foremost, we believe however, is to read more books.
Whether you’re an avid reader already or a Netflix binge-watcher who wants to (or doesn’t want to) start reading or whether you used to breathe and eat and live Books but haven’t found the time to make time for them in your busy work schedule or whether you have never touched a book in your life. Here is why you need to buy good books before next pandemic hit the world? Consider this motivation to go pick up that book you bought but never read (or to buy that book that caught your fancy but stayed on the Amazon cart.)
Reasons: Why You Need To Buy Good Books Before Next Pandemic Hit The World?
Books reflect your moods –
Whether you’re feeling sad and disconnected or hopeful and grateful, there are great books out there that can capture exactly what you’re feeling and translate into words that will leave you starstruck. From Messages in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks and Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata for when you’re feeling the blues to Pillow Talk by Freya North and Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult for when you’re looking for a feel-good book to out you in a light mood, there’s a shoe that fits every size here. Books feel like a warm and empathetic hug, no matter what your mood is (and God knows how many mood swings you will have stuck at home for an indefinite period.) And what is better than knowing there’s someone out there who is and has felt exactly the same emotions you are feeling right now, especially in times of isolation?
They will help you understand the situation better –
Say you don’t know whether you’re happy or sad or hopeful or disappointed, say you have absolutely no idea what you’re feeling whatsoever, that’s okay too! Books come to the rescue, yet again! There are plenty on books on solitude, loneliness, pandemics, apocalypses and other situations that feel just like this current one. Our personal favourite author for this is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His One Hundred Years of Solitude encapsulates the life of generations of the Buendia family, marooned from population since the time of the conception of the Macando village and resonates with the solitude we’re all enduring (or enjoying.) Love in the Time of Cholera, whose parodies of Love in the Time of Corona have flogged Instagram hashtags is exactly what its title promises to be – a love story during the turbulent and uncertain time of the cholera epidemic.
Books are therapeutic –
The feeling that you get delving into the book, temporarily losing consciousness and becoming one with your character’s consciousness; becoming a part of a story and watching events unfold before your eyes – that feeling is priceless. And of-course irreplaceable. There’s nothing in the world that can arouse more anticipation and leave you more satisfied (or heartbroken) than books. Plus, they’re great distractions from boredom, family spats and random bouts of sadness and hopelessness. And the best part is, sensations aren’t spoon-fed to you, like in movies and tv shows. There’s room for imagination – you can conjure up your own idea of the scene and its splendours and add details to your characters that not even the author has thought of. In certain ways, the book is as much the reader’s as it is the writer’s because every reader reads it and rewrites it in his own special way.
They make great content for bonding –
If you’ve ever felt like you’re running out of things to talk about with your spouse or family, books are a great place to start. You and your spouse could take turns reading a book and then discuss your thoughts and opinions later – kind of like a reading club but more intimate and personal. Or you could annotate a book and then give it to your spouse to read so that every time he/she reads a sentence, he/she knows exactly what you were thinking while reading it, and again, there’s just something so incredibly intimate about that! In fact, it DOESN’T get more intimate than that.
Or if you have a large family living together, you could have reading sessions where you take turns reading a book out loud to your family. Not only is it a great way to pass time, but it also allows you to spend some quality family time after a long and frustrating day of working at home.
Books help you cope up with pandemic stress –
It’s undoubtable. All of us are reeling under some kind of stress already. With the second wave threatening to ravage our lives again, the stress is sure to rocket – health wise, financially and mentally. With lives as ambiguous as ours and with many of our jobs hanging by a thread, now is the time we need books more than ever. It’s the urgency of our times – we must turn to books for comfort and solace because our ordinary lives don’t offer any. The rustling of paper as you flip the pages of a wonderfully written novel, the smell of the fresh book as you press your nose to its open spine, the intoxication of its words that flow like your favourite scent on the breeze – that’s all you need to unwind on a stressful pandemic evening. So buy books before pandemic hit the world again.
Basically, anytime is a great time to start reading a novel, but especially so now. As we brace for another period of quarantine and chill, it is books that will make our lives easier and happier. If this post still hasn’t convinced you to pick up a book, we suggest that you browse through our book reviews – we are sure you’ll find one that floats your boat.
Also Read: Books Are The Perfect Gift For Kids
