“Tenacity is a quality that we could all do with; that is, the ability to continue to do something for longer than might be expected. In other words, don’t give up easily. Finish that project. Complete that task. Finish that race even if you are coming in last. Stick with your ambitions; work towards them. Hold on to life, to that steep mountain slope. There’s always something you can do.”
A few days back, I picked up this beautiful, cute little book to re-read. The first time I read it was a few years back. I picked it up and started reading this beautiful piece by one of India’s most-loved authors, which opens with a letter from the author himself.
The colourful pages, beautiful fonts, amazing illustrations, and creative designs make the reading far more joyful and immersive.
Ruskin Bond has shared nuggets of wisdom in this book. It truly feels like a letter from your grandpa on how to live your life. It has the warmth, love, practical advice, and inspiration to dream big and live your life fully as long as you are alive here.
Among all those beautiful pages filled with tips, lessons, and advice, this one particularly resonated with me the most this time. It happens. As they say, we read a book for the first time every time we read it again. This time, it felt like I was reading this particular page for the first time. I read it slowly. I paused. I re-read it multiple times. I thought about it. And then I knew it was meant to come across. I needed this. I needed this reminder.
Tenacity. Just a little more push. A little more showing up. A little more faith in your journey to keep going towards your dreams, your truth, every day.
I enjoyed rereading this amazing piece this time, and I know I will reread it again someday for sure. Till then, I am holding onto tenacity. I am holding on to life, beautifully.
What is that one book you read or reread recently that talked to you like mine did? Share your stories, please.
I must say I have read something really fresh, rejuvenating, soft, simple, inspiring, and authentic after a long time in the genre of self-help. And this has been truly a lovely reading.
“The Magic of Creative Living” touched me in ways not many self-help books could before. The honesty, simplicity, and authenticity of the author make it an absolute gem.
Thankfully, someone writing a self-help kind of book talked about the myths and shit we feel trapped in so openly and loudly.
I loved this book. Loved each page, each chapter, and each paragraph a hundred percent.
Renuka has shared her life experiences, her problems, her struggles to live a life that finally feels a lot softer, meaningful, simple, yet successful, with all the fulfillment our soul craves silently. She nudges readers to sit, to question, to journal, and to basically pause and check if they are living the version of their lives they are really proud of from the bottom of their heart, or is there something missing? And if something is missing, then how to actively start participating in our lives instead of running away from it and scrolling for hours.
She has nudged throughout the book. It is a non-preachy read. You will feel the honesty. You will surely relate to the reality she is talking about between the pages.
For me, it has been one of the best, most refreshing, and simplest possible books in the self-help genre. I liked the writing style and the content of the book as well.
If you are fed up with to-do lists, how-to guides, early morning alarms, scrolling endlessly, mediocre performances, and a sense of fear and loss in life, then go read this book. It can be your saviour. I mean it. If you are ready to change, the author has your back.
Yeah, it was a lengthy read. A good, lengthy, complex, complicated, interesting, boring, and academic read.
I had the PDF version with me and had started reading it many times before, but I guess the most I could read was 5-6 pages. It was there, in my drive, to be read some day properly. Little did I know that I would read this book like I have never read any book before.
It is just about a few months back, in the last few days of November 2025, that we decided to read this book. And that too, together!
Abhinav (my partner and hubby) had already started reading before bedtime, and because I used to be on a video call with him at that time, he would read the book to me as well. And I enjoyed listening to that. And then it continued like that. This way, we read together and completed the first reading of our first book, “Don’t believe everything you think”.
We used to get on our video call, chit chat, talk, and everything used to happen like every day, and then, Abhi would take out that book and read a few pages, a few paragraphs to me, depending on our reading and listening capacity that day.
Nothing was set prior. No fixed number of pages were decided.No fixed time per se. It was all organically happening, and we just kind of got the hang of it. That time, Abhi used to read that book, and I was the attentive listener. Although I don’t remember the nitty-gritties of that book today, it was a good read, and I liked it.
Towards the end of that book, we understood that we had actually developed this cute little new thing between us, and both of us want to read more, so why not continue this intentionally? And, we continued.
Somewhere in the second half of November 2025, or in the last few days of that month, I don’t remember actually, we started reading Sapiens. Abhi bought the paperback edition, and I had the pdf in my iPad. Most of the times Abhi used to read, and I used to listen, this time with my iPad there.
Again, no fixed number of pages, hours, time, or paragraphs. The condition was that as long as it makes sense and we can understand it, we will read, and then it will be continued the next day. And, we kept it like that.
After several reading sessions of ours, we successfully completed our first read of Sapiens on 31st December,2025, as we had the plans to start a new book with the beginning of the New Year. We missed a few days in between. Abhi’s work, my health, and other things did come in between, but we made sure to take that one or two hours somehow, or more if we could, to give that book a complete first read properly.
Sapiens is a vast book. It will tell you stories about the past in such a manner that you will feel awe for your present. Sapiens tells us our stories. It is about our ancestors. It is about us. It is the story of how our existence came into reality and how our current reality is reshaping our existence in this world. It is a story of many eras.
Yuval Noah Harari has tried his best to paint the picture of our journey, right from the ape ancestors to the 21st century us, homo sapiens. He has touched on many subjects in the book ranging from the multiple theories regarding the origin and evolution of homo sapiens and their ancestors, the hunter gatherer era of humanity, beginning of agriculture, begining of language and scripts, origin and evolution of trade in different parts of the globe, the concept of money and how it has phenomenonally transformed the economy for us, the emergengence and collapse of civilisations, marriage, family, and individuality, along with today’s liberal western values, global conflicts, human’s ambition to eradicate natural death, and plethora of scientific advancements in the field of biotectnology – in short, it’s a story of the very complex yet interesting journey from the time of our first ape uncle and aunt to our today’s gen alpha nephew and nieces with their much advanced cognitive traits inside.
I do need a second read for sure. This time may be with underlining, highlighting, note-making, and a bit of those nerdy things. And I am telling you, I am looking forward to reading it again. This time, on my own, and with a bit different approach. The goal is definitely not to memorise or remember something to show off my intelligence, but to read this beautiful work as a reader whose curiosity will get the treat between those pages.
For me, this is Sapiens. A book I read with my hubby over our more than a month-long video calls. I enjoyed it, got bored, hated a few pages, got to know eye-opening truths, appreciated the author’s work, felt like a school kid again, admired history a bit more this time, finished the first read, and knew it then only that this book is for my extensive 2nd read.
Yeah, that was a short recall of sapiens for me.
I hope you will also read and look forward to rereading this book with the same enthusiasm and patience (very important for a 400-something-page book) I have cultivated so far.
Srishti Kumari 