🎵 A 540 rupee paperback ate my whole weekend

I do not read much. Maybe four books a year, and two of those are just ones my sister forces on me. So when I picked up a 540 rupee paperback from the Sunday book market near Abids, I assumed it would sit on my shelf for six months. It was a thick crime story, almost 600 pages, set in a small town where nobody trusts the police. I started it on Friday night around 11, planning to read only a chapter. I looked up and it was 2:30. I read again on Saturday morning with my tea, and again in the afternoon on the sofa, and skipped the family trip to the mall completely. My mother asked if I was sick. By Sunday evening I had finished it. My eyes were tired and I felt strangely empty, the way you feel when a long trip ends. The ending was not even a big twist. It was quiet and slightly sad, and I closed the book and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes. Now I am stuck in the usual trap. Everything I try next feels too slow. I picked up a short story collection on Monday and gave up after ten pages. I tried a film on Tuesday night and fell asleep before the interval. My phone is still faster than my attention. What do you read or watch after a book like that? Not another heavy one, I think, but something that does not feel like a letdown. Preferably something under 250 pages, funny if possible, and easy enough that I can finish it on the bus.

After a heavy crime novel I usually go for something light, like a short Wodehouse or a Malgudi Days story, since both are easy and don't ask much of you. I did the same last year after a thick thriller and the funny stories brought my attention back within a week. Reading one chapter on the bus without the phone out helped too.