40th with 400

I turned forty recently. It’s a strange fascination for rounded off figures. So multiples of ten. Then there are other special ages like 10, 13, 16, 21, 25, and some more. While every birthday should be celebrated but the milestones are a stop to reflect and imagine a future scenario. 

So in all my love for lists and numbers, I set out in my late 30s to achieve 40 things before 40. There are many exciting things but I shall reveal one by one. The most pertinent thing for a book lover and the blog is the To read list. I chose a connected but ten times bigger figure of 400 books ever read. I could have chosen 40 books in an year, four in a month and many more permutations and combinations. However taking the fact that I have lived almost half my life. (The consciousness hasn’t yet dawned but it’s coming. ) I decided to see cumulative. 

And to share with you guys I did finish those 400 books. It was quite fun though. Although staying home during pandemic and wonderful English books from free Oesterbro Copenhagen library is what really helped. Where there is a will there is a way. 

I have been a permanent believer in multi tasking, and I have done a lot. But as you see by the time you turn 40 you realise that you are too busy but not living. So while you spent your 20s and 30s saying Yes to life and reaping resulting from it. You decide to start saying No in your 40s. I admire people who make new friends during and post mid life. I think I will end up making more friends with books than people. I am quite sure they don’t irritate me the way people do. 

The 400 list was not easy to read. 40 years of life but I started reading quite late in life. My brother read so sometimes he gave me books. Mostly I was fond of comic books and cartoon strips in newspapers. It was my fav daily thing to do. I managed to read a few English classics thru my English convent prescribed summer reading. Like withering heights. 

Actually my family didn’t read much. It was not really encouraged. In a business family reading fiction was a time waste. Instead kids should spend time with text books. I did that quite a lot actually, partly education and partly the love for reading. 

Then my friend Shefali in college started giving books. Her father was a voracious reader and so was she. She had read so many books and her English and vocabulary was good. I was marginal. With my initial years in Hindi medium and textbook English speaking learning, I never got the pronunciations right. In India English fluency is considered equivalent to education. 

Anyways I started reading a lot in my college. Exploring the world of books I finished all the classics from Ayn Rand, Lord of the Rings, even Harry Potter. I had a phase where I read so much Bengali fiction that I fell in romantic love with the city of Calcutta. Saradindhu, Bhabootibushan, Satyajit Ray, Sankar, and many others. In retrospect, Bengali authors have got a bigger forum and translations amongst most other regional languages. 

I borrowed Sister of my heart from my hostel friend Namita. It became my entry to the world of female writers. Opening my world to Chita Banerjee, Arundhati Roy, Anuja Chauhan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Balli Jaswal and others. I picked up female Indian fiction any day. It was a balm for my tiring days. To spend the evenings with other women who also faced dilemmas and over came them no matter what. I found sisters of my heart in those characters. 

I also picked up an interest in immigrant fiction. Many Indian settled abroad sharing their split life between past and fixture, parents and children, loneliness and nostalgia. So many complex emotions. Human beings are nomads and it suited my own penchant and lust for home and travel. It pushed my boundaries to see a different world - different cultures, languages, histories coming together to tell stories. When the rocks move earthquakes happen, when people meet stories happen. 

I explored new world literature. While American and British fiction are quite popular, I started exploring English original and translations of African, Middle Eastern, Asian, Latin American and European fiction. Can you imagine how strange the world is and yet so similar. 400 books have been too less and I have so many more to read. Oh my half my life gone. 

Can I explore the whole world in another 400 books for the remaining half of my life. Either I need to read more or I need to choose better. May be I need to make a bucket list of books. Any recommendations!