More Reading And No Writing

It's been quite sometime since I made a post to my blog. My drive towards this post is to fulfill a requirement for one of the job recruiters for a writing sample. It is then I realize how little I wrote. As years passed, I found myself writing less and reading more. The more I fell in love with other writing styles, the more I became critical of my own writing. I try to find a common ground or an inspiration on a class that I could regularly write on but I find more interesting articles that I start reading and never have the drive to write.

As a young kid, I was gifted with journals, more of unused year diaries, by my dad who saw me writing for hours without inhibitions. It varied anything from Dear Diary entries to obituary writing for dead pets. I remember writing the vague sequel for Jurassic Park after I came back from the movie. It involved the grandchildren of the actors trying to save the park and an inevitable love story between them. When the sequel actually came out, I felt that mine was way better. It is always the way that your story seems the best when you are a kid.

I wonder how many kids even sit and write with pen and paper. I wonder whether the future generation would even have a handwriting competition. It would be more of 'Words-Per-Minute' on a keyboard competitions. I find several of my classmates complaining if the professor insists on a handwritten turn in of the homework. I personally find solving long algebraic and differential equations, pages long of theorems and equations in physics interesting with the page containing scratches and blotches of ink. It gives a geek finish than a boring print out with perfect alignment and font size. My professor mentioned that he bought a typewriter from a yard sale so that he could show what it looks like to his son. Soon kids would be taken to the museum to see paper, fountain pens and ink. It would be of no surprise if classes are conducted in future for hand writing.

There were several attempts by me to start writing on a hard journal than this blog. Vain. I have lost my handwriting which long back bought stars drawn on my face by my primary school teacher. The gleam on my face when I first bought a fountain pen is still considered an event by my mother. She would explain how I would check out pens in every stationary store I went into, write multiple versions of my name on the sample paper and would complain about the nib or color.

This blog spoilt me and twitter made me lazy. To me, Twitter is more of a window for great articles one could find to be posted. I post interesting articles, engadget videos, comic strips and interesting entries in blogs that I come across. I love reading long articles that is not delimited to 120 characters. This is my source : http://givemesomethingtoread.com/

I have been reading a lot these days, anything I get hold onto. College magazines, reddit, engadget, blogs by freelance writers, articles posted on twitter, mashable, etc via the Google Reader. A pool of resources and I cannot get enough of it. Recent novel reading has been 'Sea of Poppies' by Amitav Ghosh. An interesting book about the poppy trade in India in the early 1800's. A must read.

I wish I could write more and derive an inspiration within myself. A cheer for the writers.