To read, or not to read, that is the question which has been plaguing me all summer. It is 6am, and there is not a lot that can get me out of bed at this hour, on a Saturday no less. However, I recently banned myself from buying new books until the number matched the pile of books being read. So, in the spirit of turning over a new leaf and pages, I have turned to the reading groups of Chennai to shake me out of this slump.As I sit under the tower at Anna Nagar Tower Park, blinking away my sleep, people around me have gathered with their books. It is a practice the reading group, Tower Reads, has been keeping up for nearly three years now. Organised by Krishna Kumar, the group comes together under the tower from 6am to 9am every Saturday, bringing their own books to read in the company of others.“There weren’t many reading groups around when we started, and none that would meet on Saturday,” says Krishna. “This is somewhere people can be in Nature, slow down, and find time for themselves.”
The Quiet Chapter at Bask by Coffee?
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Aside from reading, I stroll around the park, and in an attempt to be social, my question “What are you reading?” is met with various enthused responses. When Chennai remembers that it needs to be unrelentingly hot and sweat begins to drip from my forehead onto the pages of my book, I call it a day.Despite the pages read, I will admit that this was an extreme way for me to get there. As much as I would like to be the 21-year-old who wakes up at the crack of dawn for some mindful reading, I foresee some struggles in maintaining this lifestyle. For the morning people among us, however, I believe that you will find this to be a delightful place with charming company.My hesitancy to get back into reading also stems from the struggle of choosing the perfect next read. We must deal with the fact that there are just too many books and not enough time to go through them all. Do I finally start reading that copy of Crime and Punishment I promise to tackle every summer? Or would something more contemporary be a more realistic place to start?
