Rather than recommendations of books to read during a pandemic, this is a brief account of my Lockdown readings.
The lockdown period has been an ironic time, for now that I am at home and should ideally be able to read a lot, I have not been able to read much. I guess the stress of all the uncertainty has taken a toll—with reading being its victim. So the first two months of lockdown saw me read at a snail's pace as I found I just could not concentrate. It was just my book club deadlines that kept me turning the pages or rather tapping the Kindle. Fortunately, the books were light reads such as Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife and Binodini's The Princess and the Political Agent (review here), and, therefore, did not pose much of a challenge. In fact, when the lockdown began I thought oh perfect time to read War and Peace…am so glad I did not pick that up, for nothing is more demoralising as being unable to make one's way through a book! To this mix, I added variety by making my way through Gaiman's American Gods (review here), which at least for me, did not meet the high bar set by his Samdman series.
Once I finally came to terms with the lockdown and the changed scenario, I found myself turning to travelogues: Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard (review here) and Vikramjit Ram's Tso and La: A Journey in Ladakh (review here)] in a bid to drown my sorrows regarding cancelled holidays. Then again I don't know how smart an idea that was, for reading the evocative mountain descriptions was bittersweet…while I was transported away from Delhi, the descriptions were a reminder of all that is not to be.
Now that I have gotten over the hump, I am looking for meatier reads so let's see what I will pick up next.
PS: This post is possessed--it insists on underlining words, despite my reformatting the post n number of times--so please excuse the erratic underlines of this post.
