A book for the season

Reading, ideally, shouldn’t be dictated by seasons. But, does the monsoon make you reach out for a book?

Go grab a book Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

When the skies turn dark and brooding grey, a mug of coffee and a book feel like great companions. Romantic notions are associated with the monsoon and it’s deemed to be the perfect weather to curl up with a book. Logically speaking, any time should be good for reading. Yet, is there a certain pull that monsoon has on reading and in the choice of reading material?

Screenwriter and author Kanika Dhillon thinks it over and concedes that she finds the monsoon romantic. It triggers a creative spark and she’d love to spend a rainy day at her desk, writing, as opposed to doing mundane chores. “We respond to nature; there is an umbilical connect. It impacts our mood. When the sky is overcast or it’s pouring, we feel like picking up a book and stepping into a different world. Books have that escapist quality about them,” she says.

Romances and crime thrillers are usually cited among popular reading choices for the season. The monsoon is also a part of the narrative in a few books, taking the story forward or adding to the emotional journey of a key character. In his crime thriller ‘Patang’, writer Bhaskar Chattopadhyay sets a series of brutal crimes in Mumbai’s monsoon. In this story, the rains cease to be poetic and border on being a menace. The Indian monsoon and its journey from Kerala to Cherrapunji finds itself documented in ‘Chasing the Monsoon’ by Alexander Frater.

Gaurav Parab, author of ‘Rustom and the Last Storyteller of Almora’, is working on his new book in which the monsoon plays a part. He juggles a day job and a writing schedule, in between which he manages time to read. While books are his companions all year round, he veers towards light reading material, particularly dark comedies this time of the year. “Maybe a book by PG Wodehouse or Ruskin Bond. Books with an English setting also seem ideal for rainy weather conditions. When I visit a café during the rains, I find quite a few people reading,” he observes.

Sowmya Sriram, who works with an education portal, loves the monsoon and misses the magic of Mumbai’s rains. “This season lifts your mood,” she says. Her monsoon reading list usually has romances, though this time she is exploring books by “Marian Keyes and Jojo Moyes, even though it doesn’t fit into the light reading category.”

No two approach reading or music the same way. For some, seasonal changes have little or no impact on the choice of books. “My music changes drastically according to the weather, not the reading material,” says freelance writer Sheetal Vyas. The books on her list vary from writings of The Gita, Upanishads to thrillers, and whodunits to children books. She senses a change in the way she reads though: “I tend to read books from start to finish, without stepping out for errands, during monsoon.”

Seasons are integral to the storytelling in Kanika’s ‘The Dance of Durga’ and a reviewer described her book as a ‘monsoon of a novel’. Kanika finds the rains “cleansing and therapeutic” as it washes the city off its dirt and gives everything a clean look. She’s currently hooked to books by Haruki Murakami and is looking forward to reading more of his work. “I find the shift between the real and surreal in his narratives fascinating,” she says, adding, “The monsoon, I feel, is also an ideal time to pick up books that have been languishing in the shelves for a while.”