The World Between the Pages..
I have been fond of reading since I was a child. For me, reading is like a door that lets me jump into another story, where I silently observe everything the writer is trying to convey. Being a fan of fantasy and stories, I naturally gravitate towards fiction.
Stories can be told in many different ways – through theatre, films, television, or even music. So, I often wondered why reading fascinated me the most. After years of reading, I finally began to understand the answer. When I read, I become deeply involved with the characters, experiencing every intricate emotion and vividly visualising every scene. Unlike films or television, where every face, place, and emotion is presented to us exactly as someone else imagined it, books leave that canvas blank. As a reader, I get to create my own version of every character, every landscape, every expression, and every little detail. The world exists only through the writer’s words and my imagination, making every reading experience uniquely personal. No two readers ever picture the same story in exactly the same way, and I think that’s the real magic of books. It is this collaboration between the author’s words and the reader’s imagination that no other medium has been able to recreate for me in quite the same way.
This connection often slows down my reading pace because I find myself going back to certain lines just to absorb them more deeply. Perhaps that’s also why I sometimes find reading overwhelming. Some stories stay with me long after I’ve put the book down, making it emotionally exhausting to continue.
And then there’s life. In the middle of a busy schedule, with my mind occupied by countless responsibilities and distractions, reading can begin to feel difficult. My attention span shrinks, and I often catch myself thinking that I’m not reading “the right way” anymore.
But I’ve realised that the biggest motivation during such phases is to stop worrying about reading and stop turning it into another task on the to-do list. Read little by little – not necessarily a book. It could be an article, a short story, a poem, or even a thoughtful essay. The simple habit of reading something every day gently trains the mind to slow down, focus, and eventually return to longer, more immersive reading.
Reading isn’t a race, nor is it a measure of productivity. It is a relationship that evolves with us. There will be phases when we devour books and phases when we barely manage a few pages. Both are perfectly okay. What truly matters is keeping that door open, even if we step through it only for a few minutes each day. The stories will always be there, waiting patiently for us to return.
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