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Stories you read when you are at the right age never quite leave you.
You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called.
Sometimes you will forget precisely what happened,
but if a story touches you, it will stay with you,
haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.
Neil Gaiman
When I read this quote today morning, I felt that this is very true. And I remembered one of our favourite books of those days, the 'Reader's Digest'. Yes, we were reading a number of fiction books too, but some small articles which came in the Digest, still pops out of our memory bank often.
We had subscribed for the book after we shifted to Bangalore, well, now, Bengaluru, in '77. We started getting them from '78. Our kids were small and so it was read by just by me and my husband.
Then the kids grew up and we shifted to Hosur, as all my readers know by now. Still the book was coming home. The kids also started reading...first the jokes in laughter section. Once they reached the higher classes, all the four of us would sit together and solve the 'word power'. We used to tick different symbols for each, check and know the level of our intelligence after checking the answers. The rapport was there and our knowledge also improved! I think my children also learned a lot from these books and they too will always remember some things from their engaging childhood, right, sons? Have a look at the books!
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| The collection of 'Reader's Digest', a monthly magazine, here, is from 1991 to 2006. I had given the earlier issues to our maama who is very old and wanted to read the old issues when he got time. We must go to him, collect the old lot and give him the next set of books! |
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| This is a close up of the books! |
These are some old issues. Click on them to know more pl. Content list was on the cover! Last page had paintings of renowned artists...Indian artists too!
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| Our favourite section, 'It pays to enrich your word power'. This must have helped the children in their growing years and us too! |
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| I still use this 'Quotable quotes'...in facebook! |
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| I used to order for my nieces too as a birthday gift...the yearly subscriptions! I was famous for giving books as birthday gifts to all the children. They still have got them at home! Some girls are married now! |
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| Another favourite section...I started reading and remembered about writing the post. These books never bore me! |
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| All of us used to read these and laugh together! After my elder son left for the States for higher studies, to do his under graduation, I used to write letters by hand (it was the norm in those days...'95,'96...), some 12-13 pages at a time! I used to fill up the margins with these jokes and tick them too, for not repeating them later! I did this to humour him! I did this for some years and then came the 'hotmail'! Then personal touch was gone! |
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| Another favourite, 'book section'. |
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| True stories were very interesting. 'Humour in Uniform' also used to be interesting! |
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| I miss reading these books, new ones, but I still have the old stock to read again and again! Friends and relatives who come and stay at home love to read these books...old issues! |
Later on, the quality of the writings started deteriorating...they started offering gifts in 'millions'! But the book was not interesting...So, I had to stop the subscription reluctantly. But will remember many stories, articles from them always, at least in bits and pieces like the quote above, says!
I suddenly wanted to know what our friend,
Wikipedia says about this magazine!
'The magazine was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace.'
'The magazine was started by DeWitt Wallce, while he was recovering from shrapnel wounds received in World War I.
Wallace had the idea to gather a sampling of favorite articles on many
subjects from various monthly magazines, sometimes condensing and
rewriting them, and to combine them into one magazine.'
'The first international edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938 and was sold at 2 shillings. By the 40th anniversary of Reader’s Digest, there were 40 international editions, in 13 languages and Braille, and it was the largest-circulating journal in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Peru and other countries, with a total international circulation of 23 million.'
Now, we read everything online. But you won't get this thrill of seeing old books physically and feel nostalgic!
19 comments :
Wow! You seem to have quite a good collection...
I enjoy reading them too... It offers so many varieties... so many thoughts!
LOCO MENTE: Yes, so many memories...
Wow! I love Reader's Digest as well. My absolute favorite when I was growing up. I envy your collection.
When I was young I remember liking a few things in that book, especially the jokes. But I was not a regular reader. I used to buy it from a nearby shop, when I wanted to read.
You have an amazing collection, Maami. You can apply for a Guinness record for collecting the maximum number of readers digest books :)
Destination Infinity
yessss i use to love the True story that came and also laughter is the best medicine ..
I had got them subscribed when i was in india .. what a lovely collection you have ..
Bikram's
My parents had subscribed to this magazine too when I was young. We also had Week magazine subscribed. I read both the magazines as soon as they arrived. Thanks to Reader's digest's special issue, I realized I was blind :P and needed glasses. There was an eye test in that issue and right after testing my eyes using that, we went to the doctor to get my eyes tested.:D I can never forget that. Must put it on the blog sometime. Loved your collection! I don't think we have the old editions at home.
RACHNA: Thank you, Rachna!
DESTINATION INFINITY: We used to subscribe for this book. Both of us used to read some book most of the time. So it passed on to our sons too! We loved this book then. So am still keeping them to read again. But because of the internet, we don't seem to read them much. Feel nostalgic when I see them while opening the door of the bookshelf!
BIKRAM: I was subscribing for a magazine called Target and buy Amar Chitra Katha, mostly at the Railway stations for the kids in those days. Then they too started reading jokes and other articles slowly while growing up.
Thank you, Bikram!
AVADA KEDAVRA: That is interesting news about Reader's digest, Ashwini! Please write about this. Many health tips were coming in the book. We had subscribed for India Today but used to buy The Week whenever I went to the station or outside. I used to like that magazine. Then came Outlook and still continuing!
Thank you!
It was my favorite. I remember many holiday afternoons I used to spend with Reader's Digest magazines borrowed from friends of my parents. Later on, I used to subscribe to them :)
I love Reader's Digest.
SHAIL MOHAN: Old issues were very good. Now, it is like anyother magazine.
SG: Do you still read them? Is it any better? I haven't seen how it is now!
What a collection. Its good that you are still holding on to them. All said and done the older issues were much better than the present ones. Recently I counted the pages that had advertisements, it turned out to be about 45% of the book. When I wrote to the editor and asked him about it, he replied that "it was within the allowed norms"
This post made me go back to the room in my grandparents' house in Nagpur, about which I had written in one of the posts on reading. There was a whole stack of them there and were the first 'magazines' that I read as a girl. I got many of those as gifts from my uncle, and had a collection myself, but had given it away during one of the city-shifts we had done. I was happy to give it to someone who loved them :) I bought them periodically after that but once the Indian edition came along I found like you, that they were just like any other magazine and since the format was set and I was used to the standard of the 50s to 70s, I felt let down by new content, which was increasingly Indian. I don't feel like spending so much on it anymore so have stopped reading them. Better to keep old memories of them intact than settling for something that one didn't connect to!
This post and the pictures have given me reason to take up your invitation to come and stay with you :D
Very true.
HADDOCK: Happy to know that one more admirer of Digest is here! No page in the recent editions resemble the old classic books. Thank you, Haddock!
ZEPHYR: Glad to know that you went back to remember your Reader's digest days! Pl. do come home to read them again! Thank you, Zephyr!
ONKAR: Thank you!
nice photos
digest was very popular before the era of net
Everybody has said everything, so i am going to repeat it, I was also subscribing RD,and recently someone donated lot of issues to our inhouse library, I read all of them too.earlier we had some condensed editions too..in the old issues, I loved their relationships advice a lot.
Wow! You got a huge collection on readers digest... and you also sound awesome about the old books and articles that are remarkable to remember and go through even today. During the school days I am not interested on reading books and even the books related to subject seems to be difficult. My reading journey started only in early 2000 and post schooling and I followed The Week magazine until couple of years back.
sm: Yes, sm! Thank you!
RENU: Every page was interesting earlier! Happy to know that you too were a fan of Reader's Digest!Health pages also were very good!
JEEVAN: All of us in our family are avid readers of all types of books. So, my sons too started reading very early! It continues...well...now, in the net and kindle!
You made an unnoticeable topic very conspicuous.Nostalgic and mind blowing.
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