I recently read an article by a 70-year old lady in The Reader's Digest, Asia (October 1, 2022) Her circumstances of birth and later, marriage, prevented her from pursuing higher education but she had an innate strong desire for learning and for bettering herself. She describes the day in school when her teacher distributed copies of a long reading list of 150 books. The teacher knew that most of her students would not be in a position to go to a university. She wanted them to continue their learning and so painstakingly, over a long period of time, she had compiled the list.
The writer of the article took up the list whenever she could and get - from local libraries, old bookshops and later outright purchase - the books in it. She began at the beginning and is nearly through the list now. After her domestic responsibilities were reduced and after she retired, she could finish 3 or 4 books from the list in a year. She also read them thoroughly, even when she could not understand them fully. For example, she described Das Kapital by Karl Marx as a very boring, rambling book.
The writer is proud of her own work. It was her higher learning, she says. The reading allowed her to get into different situations, perspectives, aspects of life, reasoning, laying bare of emotions etc. etc. and to enrich her understanding and her personality. She is grateful to her teacher and is even more proud of her.
The article got me thinking. I am also a teacher and hundreds of students have passed through my hands. Well, not exactly because there was always a huge gap between students and teachers in a college. Still, I can think of so many who would profit today from a dip into literature. Most of them would be settled in their careers and would have time on hand. At least some would have begun to grapple with thorny issues of meaning of life, our place in the world, purpose of existence, what to do after job, family and money etc. etc. Perhaps my small reading list would help some of them.
I have made a small list of 25 books, 15 fiction, 10 non-fiction. All of them were with me at different periods in my life and I vouch for them. They are an eclectic mix.
I am refining the list right now and soon, I will put it up.
2 comments:
This is an interesting article. Do email the list of books prepared by you.
I am non-plussed. It is for students who don't read anything outside their syllabus these days. Plus it has a decided feminist stance. I was not aware of it but it is very much there. I am thinking of writing 2 sentences to introduce each book. I will eschew publisher name, ISBN etc as Google search quickly shows the relevant details.
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