7:17 AM: In my library. Which book to pick out for the day?
7:45 AM: In the library. Which book to pick out?
8:14 AM: Still in the library. Which book to read?
8:25 AM: Time is running out!
8:45 AM: In the bus stop with a Jane Austen and Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste. Feeling good.
9:05 AM: The bus is crowded. No vacant seat but enough standing space to read.
9:07 AM: A man on my left asks if I'm a student preparing for some exams. This is disgusting!
9:15 AM: Damn! Brillat-Savarin is brilliant! There are 438 pages but am reading the book very slowly. It is too good a treat to eat it too fast.
9: 21 AM: A very funny passage. Am laughing right now. Don't care if folks have nothing better to do than stare at me.
9:40 AM: Take a break from the reading and look around. All these 9-6 commuters! They will never get to know about Brillat-Savarin. Feel pity for them.
9:43 AM: Suddenly quite optimistic about the future. It took 25 years for Brillat-Savarin to write his masterpiece. Surely I can make it sooner!
9:45 AM: Will I be able to write a good book? Of course, yes. I'm good. I'm good. (I repeat it twenty-five times.)
10:05 AM: In the office. Just another worker here. Nobody knows the real me. Nobody is aware of my blogs. Nobody knows people read me from all around the world. But it doesn’t matter. They will get to know when my novel will be published; when I will be awarded with the Booker prize. By then it will be too late for them to be my friends.
Yes, I'll have the last laugh. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm go.....
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
"By then it will be too late for them to be my friends." Hey, have you been reading my diary? Great piece, Mayank.
2 - Vikk Simmons
"By then it will be too late for them to be my friends."
Yes, well, that's pretty much how it goes...unless one of your coworkers is at home late at night Googling away and somehow one of your blog pages pops up during their research and they suddenly land on your blog. Imagine my surprise when a co-worker came up and said they had enjoyed reading my blog the night before.
Nice piece. Ooops, it's 10:35 and time to begin the long one-hour trek to work.
3 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
4 - Katie McNeill
"read by people from around the world."
thats nice, huh? I think it's just amazing that you start something like a blog and suddenly your in contact with half the world. wonderful stuff. and when your famous with a Booker prize you'll have to mail out free signed copies. :)
5 - Tehman Lall
You're good alright! No doubts about that and the fact that this does really seem your typical day..
Perhaps you should move away from books to write one. But gosh I hope its before 25 years!
6 - Snarkattack
Dammit, as usual, great article. It articulates the booklover's life so well.
I so hear you on the reading books in public, and that last bit. But no Bookers from me. Of that I'm pretty certain!
7 - Nickoval
3:30 a.m.? Mayank, you are crazy. I am a firm believer in discipline (no, not the S&M kind). You have too much talent, and too little discipline. A lot of nitwits write tasteless books and make big bucks, so you certainly could be successful! Put the nose to the grindstone, man! Heave, ho!
8 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Congratulations & (non-existent) Fabulous Prizes! This article has been chosen as an Editors' Pick.