Priyasha Anand
What is autoethnography?
"Autoethnography is a form of qualitative research in which an author uses self-reflection and writing to explore their personal experience and connect this autobiographical story to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings."(Wikipedia)

Reading and its significance
I am a 17 year old girl ,native of India .I have never have been in an aeroplane. Can you believe it ? I have never left my homeland for any other one .But that doesn't mean I am not aware of the world.And that is partly due to my greatest hobby or rather obsession: reading.
I have never been to France , but I know that it's more than the famous Eifel Tower or the Notre Dame ,it's the feel of the place , the atmosphere which makes it romantic.
But that's not the point, the important thing to note is How I a complete outsider could understand it . Well I owe this to my oldest habit ,reading.
Reading is the thing that made me what I am today. My connection with reading started long back .
I still remember the day when my mum bought me 12 Disney Storybooks .Those books had more pictures than words and perhaps that was the beginning of the reading phase of my life and that phase is not going anywhere.
Books have been my constant friends. It's not that I am a shy person or don't have friends, but sometimes you want to escape and books are my companions then.Reading is not just in books but rather in every aspect of our life. After so many years as a reader of novels, articles ,teen books,self - help books etc.I can surely state that reading is one of most beneficial and feasible activity that a man can do.Its through reading that a person  discovers new ideas ,concepts,places and people.
For me ,reading is like a journey that starts at a opening page and ends at the last page.
"Reading is like travelling a whole world by just sitting on a chair."
Nowadays I am seeing many stressful people around me and literally they are taking many sorts of stress relievers.I mean what's the point .I would like to point them to the cure and believe it or not it's reading. Read anything and you will instantly feel relieved of all the tension of the world.
There is so much to choose while reading .Literally you will be spoilt by choices as there is so much for everyone.
Aside mushrooming qualities and senses ,reading also immensely increases our word power and vocabulary.
As a writer in making I have heard a lot many people telling me to write well ,one has to read well too .I seriously could not agree more .Reading was beginning for me , writing came much later in my life.
I love reading from a very  small age but never thought of writing other than essays and paragraphs, etc. for school  and the ocassional diary entry until I turned 16  .But since then writing has fascinated  me immensely. I love playing around with words.A quote by Mark Twain comes in my mind "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words."Reading is my hobby ,I have read many classics and teen books .Writing came in my life late but since then I have written short stories and book reviews for magazines. Reading forces us to look at the words that we might not have seen or heard in our lives .I am literally mentioning reading so many times that it would be hard not to mention the impact reading plays on our brain and thinking process.It's said by scientists that reading increases our thinking process.Believe it or not ,In my case it did work. It makes me imaginative and inventive. It fills my head with ideas I could incorporate in my life, ideas for stories and other things. Maybe reading doesn't suit everyone and they would rather watch TV or chat on Facebook but for me reading is a paradise. Whenever I open a book, I know that a whole new world awaits me and all I need to do is to turn the pages.
I believe that a person who reads, will not necessarily be  successful but will at least be broad-minded and informed.Reading may look very prickly or boring to many as they may find it hard to sit with a book and that is fine. I am not here to change someone's mind  .Many of my friends find reading a bore and maybe our differences is the factor which  brings us together.
In fact, languages in children’s books are likely to be more complicated than their average conversation. A large number of children who read are articulate while the others are not, “As a man thinks, so shall he become.” (The Bible)
 Reading books require readers to think and imagine about different details in the book such as the characters and plot; this provides us to improve our thinking process. Repeating a habit of reading and persuading the brain to be more buoyant and absorb more information will give us a great benefit. It also requires readers to focus on what they are reading for long periods. Unlike magazines, internet posts or e-mails that might contain small pieces of information, books tell the whole story.
A excerpt :“And Yet the Books,” by Czesław Miłosz
The politically-minded poet gets personal about the enduring power of books:
And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
I find it amusing when people say that they are not into reading, because even if you detest it ,you still do it not in conventional way but rather in unconventional way i.e reading memos ,emails ,twitter /instagram/fb feeds etc.
I truly believe that reading is omnipresent whether you like it or not , whether you accept it or not .
Reading is life-changing to me.
I personally recommend everyone to read,read,read more as Montagu said"No entertainment is so cheap as reading ,or any pleasure so lasting."
I end my essay with the following lines by Pablo Neruda "  When I close a book
I open life.
I hear
faltering cries
among harbours."