Bhopal: Social media has snuffed the reading habit of youngsters. The reality is that youngsters (15 – 25 years old) are taking little interest in books now. They are devoting most of their time either in smart phones or on social networking sites.
However, there are some youngsters in the city who are voracious readers and still in habit of reading books specially literary works including novels, poems and plays of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Oscar Wilde, Leo Tolstoy, Mario Puzo, Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore, Surykanth Tripathi Nirala, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Sumitranandan Pant, Kalidas et al.
They read books to bring stability in life and get relief and peace in their daily chores. Free Press spoke to some young avid readers to know what kind of books they are reading i.e. classics, modern fiction, autobiographies, science fiction, mystery etc and why they are still reading books when most of their peers are not.
Since childhood I have reading habit. I read English literature, especially novels. I have read works of William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Leo Tolstoy, Mario Puzo and others. Oscar Wilde is my favourite and I have read his works ‘The importance of Being Earnest’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. I am in field job so it’s very difficult to get time for reading. I read at night for half-an-hour daily. I read book to get relief from hectic life and restore energy. I am not very active on social media, left Facebook long back. I prefer ink-and-paper–based books instead of online. I am unable to read online books.
Abdullah Ashfaq, 22, Finance Service Consultant in ICICI Prudential
I read books because it helps to freshen up my mind. I read literary works— mainly novels, stories, plays and poems. When I was a student I used to read English novels but from the time I came in theatre field I started reading Hindi literature. I have read Charles Dickens, Bertolt Brecht, Shakespeare, Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore, Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Kalidas and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. I read those books online which I didn’t get in the market. Nowadays some classics are not found in book form so I have to read them online. I devote two hours daily in night for reading books.
Eshan Gupta, 23, theatre actor
I mostly love to read novels related to psychology, social and political issues. I also love to read religious books of all religions. Since Class 8, I started reading books. I read 20 to 25 books last year. I have books by authors including Premchand, Phanishwarnath Renu, Bhagwati Charan Verma, Jaishankar Prasad, Shivaji Sawant, Amish Tripathi, Nirmal Kumar and others. I read book to bring stability in thinking as well as in life.
Mangla Prasad Tiwari, 23, media student
I used to read books a lot when I was in school. After schooling, I started working in a company. After four years gap, I took admission in advertisement and public relations in 2014-17 and started reading. It is a creative field. So I have to read a lot for creative writing. Earlier I used to read Indian politics, psychology and mythology but now I read fiction including poems, ghazals, novels and stories by new authors. I have read Premchand, Khushwant Singh,
Ramchandra Guha, Ajit Bharti and others but I don’t read Chetan Bhagat. I read feature articles online, not in printed book form.
Brijesh Pathak, 23, media student
