My collection

Like I said earlier, we now have a huge room built just to keep my stuff. My stuff includes books, CDs, DVDs, clothes and toys. I spent a day or two rearranging my books in the bookshelves. I love rearranging books, as it gives me a chance to look at my collection. I found plenty of unread books which I grouped together so that I can read them whenever possible.

While sorting my books, I found my old diaries which have some poems and stories written by me. I used to write them when I was a kid. As I grew up, I lost interest in poetry. I guess it is mainly because of the poems they made us read as part of the English syllabus. Once someone asks me to find out the hidden meanings and wants me to interpret what the author was trying to convey, I lose interest in that book. This is one of the reasons for not joining a book club. I will post some of my poems on this blog soon. I also found my drawings, sketches and paintings in few books.

I also found books full of jalebis(concentric circles) that I wrote when I could not even write. I used to see my dad writing reports and would try to do the same but end up writing circles. I have written them in so many diaries. My mom has carefully preserved these diaries for all these years. It’s fun browsing through those diaries.

Along with my books, I found greeting cards. Plenty of them. Most of them sent by friends, some by my uncle and cousin who used to write to me when we were in North India. I found my school autograph book along with some old pictures. Some greeting cards were sent by friends I don’t even remember today. There were two friends whose names I could not even recollect.

And then I found books which I read in my childhood. I had no idea I owned a book of Sherlock Holmes when I was young. I found couple of books given to me by my dad, along with a note from him saying it was for his “little girl”. I found books that I won as prizes in school. It was interesting to look at my old collection of books. I have always loved reading books.

I also found my encyclopedia collection. I loved reading encyclopedias as a kid. For my birthday every year, my parents would gift me encyclopedias.

“The new concise children’s encyclopedia” – was a gift from my parents for one of my birthdays. It immediately became my most favorite book ever. I must have read this book a million times. I learned a lot from this book. I had no idea that an animal called anteater even existed before reading this book.

“Nai Disha Junior Encyclopedia” – this was another favorite which was again a birthday gift, if I remember correctly.

“501 fascinating facts” – I think I bought this book myself, after browsing through it in a bookstore.

 “Children’s knowledge bank” – I own all the books in this collection and they were again a birthday gift from my parents. To say that I loved these books would be an understatement. They helped me learn so much about this world. They were my wikipedia when I was a kid. Interesting thing to note, I own two copies of book number 6. Not sure how that happened.
“Tell me why?” – Another favorite read of mine found in the collection.

I only remember reading these books since I own them. I don’t remember any that I borrowed from the library. Since I loved encyclopedias so much when I was a kid, I am sure my son will like them too. He will have access to his mom’s collection. I also mean to get him some of his own as soon as he is old enough to read them on his own.

Did you read encyclopedias as a kid? Do you still have your old books with you?