This year, I’m having a renaissance of sorts. I picked up reading again after so many years. I mean not like reading because I need something from it such as a recipe for cooking, or research for an upcoming talk. But reading for the joy of it. I had finished quite a few paperback novels in the past couple of months and I even started on a draft write-up for a book that resonated with me, but I picked up another book which took the time off writing.
And then last month or so, I also started sketching. I enjoyed sketching when I was a kid so it’s been many years since I’ve done this. I’m no artist, mind you, but I guess that’s what makes sketching work for me. I can get away with a representation of an object, person or scenery and not worry too much about details. I’ve been posting my work on my Instagram account and since then, my algorithm has been showing accounts on my feed that focus on sketching, watercolours, and acrylic artwork. Their art are leagues beyond what I do, but I take it as inspiration to keep on sketching and hopefully be able to express myself better as time passes.
I find reading and sketching relaxing. It helps me focus on the task at hand and in a way, it is also changing the way I look at my surroundings.
But more so I realise that my being able spend time on hobbies means that I feel I can now spend time for myself too. I’m not saying that it’s bad for you to give of yourself to others, but if you are unable to replenish yourself then there will be nothing left to give and you will feel drained and exhausted. It’s good to think of yourself every once in a while and enjoy things you want. In this year’s journey I feel like I’m rediscovering myself and I’m all the better for it.
Of the many books that I have read over the years, there was one story that stuck with me. It was from an Agatha Christie book. The story was one of many in that book and for some reason I could not remember what the book title was! To be fair I read it when I was in Uni in the 1990s.
It was about a rich woman who found life dull and so she consulted an agency who specialised in finding happiness for people who aren’t. The rich woman then found herself in a rather impoverished state after a rather theatrical scenario to make her believe that her persona was transferred to a different person. But after all the challenges that she overcame in her new environment, she somehow found fulfilment in it all.
It’s a short but beautiful story, one that will no longer hold water in this age of mobile phones, but for some reason it stuck in my mind and I'm actually not sure what caused me to remember and search for it!
So for one reason or another I was determined to find that book again. Thanks to Google search, I found out that the book was titled Parker Pyne Investigates and the title of that story was “The case of the rich woman”.
Another online search revealed that I can buy it second hand but was surprisingly pricey. New books more so. But a trip to the op shop gave me an awesome surprise when the very book I was looking was displayed prominently over other books. I gladly paid $2 for it. The quality is not great and the pages have started to yellow, but there were no tears and is very much readable.
That was three months ago and I satisfied my craving to read that story again. Along the way to searching for that book I actually bought a couple more Agatha Christie novels from various op shops. These are sitting on our bookshelf, waiting to be read and appreciated.
But getting re-acquainted with that story actually rekindled a previous hobby: reading books. I've been reading books for as long as I can remember. I read in third or fourth grade school, often staying in the library when all the other kids are outside playing. In my fifth and sixth grade Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery books were all the rage and it was not just me who were crazy over the books. When the bell rang everybody would rush to the library to borrow. I remember reading an average of three books in a week! Then after a while, the interest waned and its prominent place in the library was replaced by Asterix comic books. I never did get the hang of reading Asterix. But I loved the mystery novels so much that I sought them out even in high school, where I discovered Trixie Belden.
It was in university that I read my first Agatha Christie book. I'm not sure if it was the murder in the library or the popular Christmas themed "Three blind mice" (also called Mousetrap), but since reading that first book and being gobsmacked by the ending I've become an Agatha Christie fan ever since.
So I guess my remembering that short story from so many years ago doesn't really come as a surprise.
So I have of late been focusing more on books than on plants (which I obsessed over since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020).
Since our trip to Japan early this year, I have been fascinated with more stuff from the country, including books. I’ve been reading up on Japanese food recipes (and I have cooked some bento boxes too!) and even story books. I might write about those at length, in my next post. So yes, I'm back in my reading era.
I'm actually not sure what to end this blog post with for my choice of song, but this one's book related so might as well!
In a couple of hours, the month of March will end. Time flies.
We finished watching the first hour of Rental Family on Disney Plus awhile ago. The bed beckoned so this is going to be a two-part movie. This Brendan Fraser starrer is based in Japan so that makes it all the more enticing to watch. It's amazing how the places being shown seems so familiar to my wife and myself. We couldn't help but smile and say 'we were there!' even if the places weren't exactly where we've been. There's just a feeling of familiarity.... that somehow you've been there, and that for a while, you belonged in that place and time. It's such an awesome feeling. Can't wait to get back!
There is one other thing that's hanging above everyone's heads - the fuel crisis due to the Iran war. Unleaded 91 is now close to $3.50 and they say it will get worse before it gets better. Then there's the power charge increase starting tomorrow, and then soon we will also start getting charged for water separately. Other things are getting more expensive due to this, as expected.
So... even for just an hour, we can go back to a happier time when we were in Japan wandering the streets, riding the trains, getting lost in the maze of underground shops, enjoying our konbini trips and rummaging through gacha machines...
