The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams

Mukesh wished now that he’d asked her what they were about, what she loved about them, why she’d felt the need to read the same ones again and again. He wished that he’d read them with her.

On the other side, he turned to look for her, his hand held up in a wave. But her bus had arrived, and he was already forgotten.

‘Thank you, my friend, thank you. Today’s quite a big day for me.’

Sometimes, books just take us away for a little while, and return us to our place with a new perspective.

Someone had taken care with this list – they’d curated it. What was in these books? Why had they chosen these ones? Had the reading-list author known their scrap of paper would become someone else’s reading list too?

It had really got to her. But now, now she needed to say something interesting about it, she literally had no clue if her thoughts were valid. The book had made her feel things, but was any of it worth sharing?

Every reader, unknowingly connected in some small way. He was about to be a part of this too.

The girl was right – Naina would be proud, not just because he’d read a book quickly … but because today he took himself out of his comfort zone, and for a few moments of his day, he’d made a brand-new friend.

He couldn’t finish the walk, but he had walked … further than he’d been in a long time, and he’d been around people, so many people, for longer than he had in years. This was progress, wasn’t it?

These strangers, they are my silent companions.’

they proved again and again that where there was a will, there was always a way.

There was something magical in that – in sharing a world you have loved; allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself.