Reading makes a perfect man. Reading expands your thoughts and enlarges your wold.

(An extract from the interview given to Mr. S.V. Venugopalan of The “Bank Workers’ Unity” on the occasion of World Book & Copyright Day Day on23 April.)

What Has initiated you to the reading habit?
“I Have sought for happiness everywhere, but I have found it nowhere except in a little corner with a little book.” - Thomas a Kempis

When I was small, it all started with my father’s taunt, “hold the book, and sit”. Whenever guests/ relatives used to come, I used to be very hyper active as the children of that age and wanted to show my prowess in acrobatics to the guests. Then my father taunting me, kept the guests rescued from my antics. This ‘hold some book’ taunt used to be a regular ritual whenever the guests used to come. Holding a book and sitting quiet was not an easy task. So I got gradually hooked up to the habit of reading from my childhood.

“When I get a little money, I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food and clothes”.-Erasmus.
It has almost become one real vice or passion. As a student, whatever dough, I used to get as pocket money I used to spend all of it on purchasing books from the second hand book stalls. After joining the bank, economic independence lead to using much of my salary towards purchase of more and more of new and less of second-hand books.
Immediately, after my marriage there was a set back not only in my acquiring the books but also in my reading. My wife, a bibiliophobe, as a new bride thought of my reading habit to be a competitor, hogging up the time that rightly belonged to her. Over a period I turned her to my way by rubbing my vice of reading to her. Now she lives with me along with my hoards of books. Not only that, she also got the wall to wall cabinets built at home to accommodate my innumerable number of books.

Variety in reading?
Suspense thrillers (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through James Hadley Chase, Agatha Christie, Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace to Dan Brown) self improvement books (from Dale Carnegie to Shiv Khera), English/ Telugu/ Sanskrit literature, spirituality, humour (especially P.G.Wodehouse), Homoeo etc.

Which place do you prefer for reading?
Toilet. - So calm and quiet and away from the maddening crowd.

How do you read large volumes?
Tear it into manageable lots, carry it and read it. Once reading is over I get the lots re-bound.
By getting up early in the morning, keeping late nights, and also during waiting periods, lunch hours, journeys etc I make lot of time which I allocate to reading books..

Tips, to a non-voracious reader, as how to read.
“Reading is visually guided thinking.”

Read the reviews, before choosing the books (like the Tuesday book review in the Hindu, book lists from news papers/ magazines etc.)

Get the over view of the book- read the front and the back covers;
Read the author’s credentials if it relates to the subject of the book;
Skim the introduction to get insights into the book’s main points.
Read the table of contents
Read all major headings and sub headings.
Read the first sentence of each paragraph.
Prereading increases comprehension and understanding of the book.

Now read the book in its entirety with a pen or pencil in hand.
Take down points from each reading or mark key passages or write notes in the margin. The important points- don’t mark the entire line, mark vertically on the sides of the lines in the margins.
On the back or front inside covers, write down the page numbers containing the key points for future reference.

If the book is large and voluminous, then tear it to manageable lots as to carry them in your shirt/ pant pockets, and read them where ever you get time (not to tear from the books borrowed from library). Once read, bind the whole lot and place it back into the rack.
Don’t make your books a store place. Everything in its place and place for everything.
Cut down on watching television.
Visit a library every weak.
Read the title” Read & Grow Rich” by Burke Hedges, INTI Publishing, The USA.

How do you avoid dozing?
“There is a great deal of difference between the eager who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.” –G.K.Chesterton

When keen in studying and interest is there, there is no question of dozing of.

Speed Reading ?
“I took a course in speed reading and was able to read “War and Peace” in 20 minutes. It is about Russia”- Woody Allen.

I skim through the books pretty fast.
There is no speed reading in serious study.

Your Advice
Keep reading, and keep growing.

QUOTES:
A drop of ink may make a million think.-Lords Byron.

Only three things are necessary to make life happy- the blessing of God, books and a friend. - Lacordaire.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. - Thomas Carlyle.

Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to body.- Anonymous.

Gutenberg made everybody a reader; Xerox makes everybody a publisher.-Marshall McLuhan

Some books are to be tasted… others to be swallowed…and more few to be chewed and digested.-Francis Bacon

Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge, Other’s just gargle. -John Locke

The average salesman doesn’t read a book. That is why he is the average salesman.

Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader.-Harry Truman.

I can not live without books...- Thomas Jefferson

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge. It is thinking that makes what we read, ours.-Jock Locke.

The books that help you most are those which make you think the most.-Theodore Parker.

By reading we discover our world, our history, and ourselves.-Daniel Boorstin.

Books are for nothing but to inspire-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Reading is a means of thinking with another person’s mind. It forces you to stretch your own. - Charles Scribner,Jr.

All that mankind had done, thought, gained, or been is lying in the pages of books.

A man learns by two things- one is reading and the other is association with smarter people. - Will Rogers.

If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read.-Emerson.

One reads in order to ask questions.-Franz Kafka.

If a book we are reading doesn’t shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it. - Franz Kafka.

It is from books that wise men derive consolation in the troubles of life.-Victor Hugo.

Read in order to live-Gustave Flauben

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest...- Benjamin Franklin.
_____________________________________________________