If you have a penchant for reading then you can most probably relate to the joy one derives when immersed in a book, albeit people may consider or call you out as a book worm even then a true lover or a bibliophile can never be dissuaded from reading. So in this essay I am going to shed some light on how a deep affinity to the hobby of reading can make anyone to aspire to be a writer, because that would be my dream job too. One of the writers I deeply admire from my school days said “From a love of reading comes good writing.” He also said “There is only one way to become a good writer that is to be a good reader.” The person I am talking about is none other than the renowned Ruskin Bond a great Indian author of British descent. Ruskin bond’s books especially the “Room on the Roof” was the one which hooked me to reading from an early age.
Let us first understand the hobby of reading especially for those who are not fond of reading, that what is it about reading, so banal an activity that can draw some people to it for hours in a day and for a life time. Firstly we all recognize that reading is the basic way we communicate, even if a person is not an avid reader, he or she may be reading and even writing a lot in their work to communicate with their peers and I don’t think that communication technology is anywhere near to finding a substitute for reading. People may be interested in fiction, or abstract, scientific reading, but one thing that is common to all the reading enthusiasts, is whenever they are reading their liked material, they are so drawn in that they forget the passage of time, I would like to describe this feeling as that of awe and sublime, when you have just read a beautiful novel or a long essay from science journals, if that is to your liking, when you finish, you feel like you had been disconnected from the world and are then suddenly aware of it again and then everything around you seems beautiful at least for some time that feeling leaves a subtle residue which you can carry and experience in your heart and mind whenever you like. One of the many beauties of this hobby of reading are, that firstly it involves negligible expenditure on financial front which is a boon for those who are not economically well off and more so with the advent and advancement of the internet, secondly its highly portable you can carry a book or newspaper easily without any inconvenience, thirdly and especially for those who love reading, it is still and will I think forever remain a way to learn and enhance our knowledge in all spheres of life and last but not the least, the thing which is the most beautiful about reading is that any person can inculcate this life transforming habit at any point in their life and it also does not need you to be young and physically well, which again is a boon for those who are physically handicapped or old, hence reading never discriminates on basis of age or physical abilities.
After having shed some light on reading as a hobby let us now look towards how reading as hobby can subtly lead one to writing, some of the changes that are explicitly visible in anyone who has been reading from long time is that their vocabulary increases tremendously as they read new words and re read them again, they get imprinted on their memory, another thing which we notice is that our basic knowledge if we read books on diverse topics or a knowledge in particular domain if we prefer to read on it, increases vastly. This can equip anyone with the two basic needs of writing, which are: the words to express your exact feelings and the accurate knowledge you may need while writing.
The other major change which is tacit and is developed in serious readers after a long time of reading is way of writing of professional authors and writers, the human brain is so competent and complex that it subconsciously registers patterns we feed it and then accordingly it modifies and updates our activities related to those patterns and sometime even without our awareness of it. But still one thing that needs to be kept in mind is that if anyone wishes to be a professional writer in their lives, they will still need to practice writing with reading, but again a professional would understand how closely the material you have read affects what you write.
To pursue reading and writing as a professional career, one can take two paths in their life. If someone has decided to be a writer from the very initial stage of their career then they can pursue their graduation in courses such as literature or a major in the language in which they want to write and from there they would be guided by professors and teachers who are themselves writers, but not everyone can have a serendipitous clarity of they want to do from the start, sometimes one may grow up and even start doing a job when they realise that they love reading and would love to write as well, they don’t need to be crestfallen as there are numerous writing courses online as well as weekend colleges which you can pursue with your job.
A major plus point for the people of our generation is that reading and writing are no more limited to just those who want to write novels, tomes or poetry, today good writing skill is needed and is in high demand in many areas such as journalism, content writing, marketing (both social media and other medias), blogging, editing at newspapers and magazines and many more, so there are a plethora of career options, one does not necessarily need to be someone who churns out from their mind long novels. So writing as a career has bright and thriving career prospects and even more so in today’s digital world where free lancing has also become easy to do.
Albeit reading and writing as a career seem alluring and lucrative from a perspective of a successful writer and it is typical for us to take something in at face value rather than researching behind it, similarly many may think of reading and writing as easy to pursue career options, but one should not start pursuing them as a career only by judging on this criteria as in reality it’s a game of patience and perseverance, you may not get your own best seller or you may not become an editor at your favourite magazine as soon as you start your career, remember if it was not for the patience of J.K. Rowling who despite of being jobless and a single mother and being rejected by twelve publishers for you may never guess what?, the Harry potter novels, she persisted and never gave up even though she was in clinical depression at that time and today we all know about harry potter but most of us don’t recognize the struggle behind it.
I would like to end this essay by stating that anyone can become a good writer if they are a good reader, and if one genuinely loves reading and writing, then hindrances and obstacles are nothing for them as nothing from outside can stop you from doing that which you love from inside.
