Read only for pleasure
Personally I dislike Masud Rana. When my friends heard for the first time that I never read a single line from this legendary thriller, they were flabbergasted, as it is really difficult to find a person who does not like it. I did not read it because I do not like these overconfident macho type guys. For this same reason, I do not like James Bond. But if I liked it, I should have gone for it.
My mother also forbade me to read Masud Rana. Feluda and Tin Goyenda were my favourites at that time. But when I grew up and got the right to read anything and everything , I preferred Sunil, Shirshendu and other novels to Masud Rana. That was my choice, not my mother's. As you are a university student you must have gone through our HSC level story 'Reading for Pleasure' where the author says 'I do not see why anybody should not read what he likes, nor why anybody should read what he doesn't like'. The author's father never stopped him from reading thrillers arguing that "If I (the author) had any sense, I would grow out of this type of reading (thrillers); if I had not, it did not matter what I read, as I should be a fool anyway."
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. That's the truth. Both our parents were wrong to stop us from reading Masud Rana because that restriction neither changed your choice nor mine. Your instinct wants you to read it and mine to read something else. Here the choice matters. The restriction has nothing to do . The same goes for music and movies.
In your letter you mentioned 'instinct' as if it is something bad. But everybody has different instincts. Everybody does not like Masud Rana and everybody does not like John Grisham. If everybody had a calm and sober personality, the world would have been quite a monochromatic place to live in. Going by your instinct will not make you Frankenstein. It will only help you to be your own self.
In the end, I want to mention the ambiguity in your letter. If you are tired that means you need a change and if you are overjoyed then you should go for it. You cannot be tired and overjoyed at the same time.