Read daily for pleasure, not to meet target, says Tharoor

sharjah — Indian author and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor has always loved the crowds at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF). Though he saw the ‘crowd’ only from his screen on Saturday, he had shared some helpful advice and nuggets of wisdom on reading and writing.

Tharoor, who is well known for his formidable vocabulary and penchant for unusual words, told the international virtual audience that the favourite word in his rich lexicon is: ‘Read’.

“I love the word ‘read’ because it is only by reading that you acquire all the other words,” said the eminent thinker and writer on the ‘Sharjah Reads’ global platform, urging the audience to have an active engagement with the written word.

Admitting that his work-related demands as a politician have prevented him from tackling “the mountainous pile of books that I intended to read during the lockdown”, Tharoor also rued the fact that his reading has declined from his youth when he was a much more voracious reader.

“I once read 365 books in a particular year – I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone as you should read for pleasure, not to achieve a target,” he said.

Commenting on his latest literary offering, The Battle of Belonging — published less than a fortnight ago on October 31 — he said: “The book is a product of many years of reflection. but its fruition became possible only because of the concentrated time available during the recent lockdown to devote to both research and writing.”

He called it his “magnum opus on the theory, evolution and practice of nationalism across the globe and especially in India”.