Book Box | Reading without rules
On why there are no rules when it comes to reading
Anything works, there are no rules when it comes to books.

Be indulgent with yourself this year.
Curate your reading, or be careless, whatever suits your mood.
Don’t be affected by the words of the highbrow book critics- at a party, at your book club or on Instagram.
Early in my life, I learned the joys of being indiscriminate; promiscuous in my perusal, Monday mornings with missionary Soldiers of God the nuns in school sold us for 25 paise each, library books and the newsprint my jhaal muri packets came wrapped in.
Favourites like the William books by Richmal Crompton and The Secret Island by Enid Blyton.

Grist for my reading mill, everyone of them.
Honestly,
I just indulge myself, books are bread and butter- textbooks and reams of research,
Jam as well – murder mysteries with detectives restoring order in the world, travelogues that tell of people and places, and the slice-of-life novellas of Claire Keegan and Vivek Shanbhag.

Kiss and Tell is what I do when it comes to these books.
Love, lust, likability- they all jump into the ways I read my books
Multiplying the highs and lows in my book clubs, dissing, debating, dissecting, discussing,
Nuances of character, plot, setting and style
Open it all up for analysis,
Pages underlined and highlighted.
Quick to pick up fiction and memoirs, always on the hunt for something
Rare, that literary gem that’s been forgotten, like the stunning Fire of Bengal book written by the wife of a Hungarian professor invited by the Poet to spend a year in Shantiniketan as the fight for Indian Independence hots up
Sometimes it is a book everyone is talking about like Orbital, perched on every best books of 2024 booklist.
Taste them all, roll them on your tongue.
Understand some, adore others, reject a few, that’s very important. Everything is
Valid when it comes to your reading
Wade in, dip your toes, dive or just lazily tread water
X-ray the word choices, the worlds, the points of view
You do You.
Zoom to wherever you want.
Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com
The views expressed are personal
