Wednesday, November 12, 2008

ah..the smell of a new book

I was just returning from work when I thought I'll just peep in at Full Circle, the bookshop at GK 1 with the most fabulous book collection in Delhi. And then I saw the bookrack displaying 'The Private Patient', the latest Adam Dalgliesh murder mystery novel, and my heart did a billion summersaults...it coudnt' be true, could it, that PD James has finished one more AD novel (bless her, she's 88)? And it was that single act of going inside the shop and paying Rs.695 for the book that changed the contour of that evening..I was deliriously happy, and quite tempted to shout from rooftops 'I am the queen of the world'..and it was then that my reaction caught me by surprise..what is it about books that gives me such unadulterated pleasure that it can lift an otherwise mundane day into a memorable one? 
What I have understood since then is that books tell me that even if everything in my life goes wrong, i'll still have them to return to, to live them, to smell them, and to experience them. They are probably also the only ones where I'll find answers to my queries which will help me to make sense of the life I lead