Read a page before bed

Books always fascinated me as a child (and still do). I developed the habit of reading before bed or to be precise, reading in bed in my childhood. I’d be found reading Enid Blyton in bed, the night before the due date, trying to finish it before having to return it to the school library the next day. Reading whatever books I got from the school library and visiting a nearby library almost every day during summer vacations where I vaguely recall reading books like The Secret Garden and Black Beauty, I tried to inculcate the habit of reading. Soon enough finding time to read became a point of concern and when my alter ego questioned me for not reading, I’d revert with a lame excuse of getting back to it when I found the time to. My naive self then grew up to realize that you never have the time to read, you have to make space for it in your routine — just like eating, sleeping, bathing, and brushing your teeth.

Another reason which I didn’t realize then was I still had to explore and find my taste in books. As J.K. Rowling says, “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” For me, it was a bit different, I liked to read but without the right books, I wasn’t consistent with it. Even though I believed in reading if not done every day but often, it was a long way till I found the books that I was subconsciously looking for.

My pre-teen self believed in fantasies. She waited for the right books to fall in her lap, she didn’t quite go in search of them. And the thing that I deeply regret due to it is not having read Harry Potter during school. For it would have been a kick-start for me then to find consistency in reading. Even so, it became that thing in college to put me back on track.

I owe it to a dear friend for lending me Harry Potter which got me out of my reading slump. None other than Rowling’s books were a magical potion to finding the right books for me. I read Harry Potter in sickness and in health, during lectures, during semester exams, late into nights, and early mornings. Somedays I even bunked classes with friends to go read by a canal. Getting up early in the hostel and reading with a cup of tea before attending classes became a solitary start to each day. At night, I read before bed even if it meant falling asleep before finishing a page. On the days when I was really tired, I read a paragraph, few lines, or sometimes just fell asleep holding the book.

When I started working, the reading time got limited on weekdays but I followed the ritual of reading — the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. On weekends, I’d especially wake up early to read when my roommates were half-way through their sleep. Sitting by the window beside my bed with a cup of tea, I could read for hours without any perturbation. On weekends, I didn’t have to hurry and leave a cliffhanger to not be late for the office. A line from my poem describing weekend morning scene says,

“Of early Sunday mornings that made me linger on the words a little longer,

I found the most alluring ones over a cup of tea.”

Reading a page before bed didn’t necessarily have to be a cut-throat routine followed each day. Somedays it could mean reading a chapter and somedays it could mean just looking at the book by the pillow and sleeping to the thought of reading.

As I started to discover books of my interest, I wanted to read more and the feeling of not being able to put down a book became friendlier. The impulsive book hauls and the increasing unread piles served as a booster. When I tried reading Kindle, it seemed a better choice for bed-time reading but there was no feeling like falling asleep with a book in hand and waking up in the dead of the night to find the lights on. Later, I went on to realize that I slept peacefully when I fell asleep reading from a paperback rather than a Kindle.

One of the very few noteworthy achievements of 2020 which will go on to become the year I read the most books and with 2021 just around the corner, I plan to set the bar high. For each day to come, I wish there is none I spend without reading a page. It has been a wonderful journey from reading random books to now recommending books to friends and nudging everyone to read.

For anyone trying to develop a habit of reading, I’d recommend starting with fiction because there’s a child inside each of us who likes bedtime stories. Just as important reading is, it’s also important to pay attention to what you pick to read. So, choose wisely.

P.S.: You are never too old to start reading Harry Potter.

Tell us in the comments below about your reading habits or the ones you are planning to develop.