Reading habits and writing niche
I am the jealous type. I was jealous of Harry Potter readers in childhood. So I started reading books - mostly Sherlock Holmes, Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie. I became a voracious reader much later.
Holaaaaaaaa! I am Shantanu, writing on business, marketing and culture every week out of Singapore. Or maybe not? I believe I have figured out my niche. More on this later.
First, I am happy to be back after a week long break. The '“break” was quite hectic - flying to Jakarta, dancing crazily, too much drinks, almost no sleep and meeting my lovely friends after several months. I curse Bengaluru traffic, but figured that Jakarta is as bad. We spent more than 2 hours in the car to visit the Old Town but got tired of the traffic and went back to out hotel. My planned nap did not happen due to Jakarta traffic. However, even in such traffic, there was no honking. Phew!
Second, how are you? Wouldn’t you like to nap like this?
I really wish. Cats are such mushy characters in pictures 😻. They can be an absolute devil otherwise.
Third, these days I am mostly stressed about the weekly sales numbers📈. I keep checking all dashboards where numbers pop up - Shopee, Lazada, GA, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Shopline - just to see if something is moving. Last weekend was great for sales though - we achieved 4% conversion on Shopee & Lazada! It was a huge achievement🦘.
Okay now let’s talk about today’s topic - reading habits.
#1 A non-reader aspiring to be voracious reader.
See, I don’t come from a well-read family. My dad was the first generation graduate in the family. My brother and I are the second generation. In fact, we are the first generation of Masters 🎓. I always have had a lot of catching up to do while studying at school and college. Reading was part of this catching up. I was amazed at school to hear friends reading a 700-1000 page novel over the weekend. Remember, it took us a full 365 days to finish our school books, which were maximum 200-300 pages long!
How can someone read 700 pages in 2 days? How do they even remember the story if they read so fast? Isn’t it bad to just skim through the paragraphs. You see I was dumb. I didn’t know what reading a novel meant.
I picked up a few smaller story books - imagine the Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie. I enjoyed reading these 100 pages stories. Then a friend gave me the thick Sherlock Holmes novel. I was hopeless.
I surprised myself by finishing the novel. I was so intrigued with the plot that I couldn’t stop. Brave me 😇
#2 Transformed to a voracious reader.
The Sherlock Holmes novel was a success. It gave me confidence to read more. The next thick book I read was India After Gandhi. Still one of my favourite books. It uncovers India’s modern history from 1950 to 1999. None of the school textbook teach this period properly. The only complaint I have is that stopped at the most interesting period of India’s modern history - 1999. The India of 2000-2020 period is the most fascinating story anyone can get their hands on. Politics changed drastically - from coalition parties to single party majority. Society changed - from government job seekers to startup founder aspirants. Internet changed - from Tata’s slow wired connection to almost free & world-class Reliance Jio and Jio Fibre. IPL, a USD 3.2 bn sports league, took shape. It is testament to the potential of Indian market, if done right.
I changed during this period too. I started piling up on books. Reading at least one every week. I read one book, ordered 3 more. Amazon.in’s book collection definitely helped! Let me illustrate with pictures.
I bought so much more after this that I had to get a separate bookshelf for all the books. Many of those books are unread.

#3 Decided to give paperbacks a break.
March 2020, Covid hit. August 2020, I decided to stop paying rent in Bengaluru and move back to Dhanbad, my hometown. There were some ulterior motives behind the decision as well, however, that’s out of scope of this newsletter. Oct 2020, I moved to Dubai, UAE. I knew I was going to move countries again in less than a year, to Singapore. Then instead of staying at my own house, I would stay in a hotel room. It definitely won’t have space for all the paperback books.
So, I decided to park all my books in Dhanbad. I knew I could not keep carrying all those books everywhere with me. Books are the heaviest piece of luggage when you move houses. I did end up buying paperbacks again in Dubai but sold them off before leaving. I also did quite a few book trades there - surprisingly people are open to exchanging books.
I took on Kindle while in Dubai. It went well for the first few months. I was still reading a lot. But I noticed the habit trailing off. I have hardly read 2021 onwards. Now, I am an occasional reader.
Something else also happened - I realised that most books are commercial. All those books you see being pushed as most read and trending are just ads. The quality of writing is not engaging as well. Finally, I hate the “research” writers - writers who research and then write on a topic. One of the prime examples is Malcolm Gladwell. I have a slight hate for such writers.
#4 Recovering Addict
Life is more settled now. I still don’t know if I will be in Singapore for next few years or not. However, I am hoping it won’t be as frequent moving as the last 3 years. I have missed reading. I think about it a lot. I pick up my Kindle often to spend quality time with myself. I wish to start reading more, like I used to 😇
The point is hobbies and tastes evolve with life and situations. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you stopped something you are proud of.
Moving on,
Pi, an AI assistant, helped me narrow down my writing focus
I may not be a voracious book reader, but I am a voracious newsletter reader 😏. While reading one of them, One Useful thing, I landed on Pi. This happened today morning.
You can read my conversation with Pi here. I am sharing a snippet below.
The is the most conversational one I have seen till date. It acts like your friend and guides you to clear your mind. Try it yourself and tell me how you find it.
Okay so the answer of my niche is - Building businesses from scratch aka entrepreneurship. I won’t restrict myself to just business news. I will also talk about the people behind it and the hardships they face. It is hard to write about a pain you are going through, so I will space out the hardships by at least 2-3 months.
Next week onwards, here is my new introduction
Hola! This is Shantanu, writing about the nuances of building businesses from scratch every week out of Singapore.
Thanks for reading till the end. It an absolute joy to see you reach here. Did I tell you that I saw the first Panda in life last Friday on a company outing? I now understand why the world loves them. 😍
Can I tell that you are amazing!
I cannot let you go without a peek of my favourite, Jisoo 🙈
Hahah, she makes me smile every time. Okay bye 🤭