So I've been meaning to post this blog for over three months now. Having finally gotten over my sheer laziness and procrastination, here goes! Thanks Nava for the prompt. :)
Books I’ve read. Books I like to read. Books that have
influenced me. In an ideal world, I’d like to say ALL BOOKS EVERYWHERE ON THIS
PLANET. But obviously and very unfortunately, that is not true. So I’m going to
list off the top of my head the most fascinating, inspiring, life-changing
books and authors I’ve read up till my boring 19th birthday.
1.
Agatha Christie
Oh Ms. Christie, I owe my childhood to you!
Hercule Poirot became one of my few select idols. Your brilliant thinking and
your way of writing murder mysteries made me think, yearn, solve and ultimately
fail because Ms Christie, you’ve never failed to outsmart me. For me, The Last
Curtain would always be a legendary book; (spoilers ahead, I’m afraid) the fall
of the great Monseuir Hercule Poirot in the grandest way possible.
2.
Jeffrey Archer
Mr Archer formed the backbone of all
thriller, drama, romance books I’ve ever read and all that I ever hope to read.
He’s got so much packed and going on in just those 400 odd pages, so much that
it makes you wonder what has the world not experienced yet! The most striking
of all his books are the Clifton Chronicles- a series of seven books, of which five remain still to be written.
Can’t wait!
3.
J K Rowling – HARRY POTTER LOVE!
Reading the HP series marked some of the
happiest days of mine as a kid, a pre-teen and a teenager. She could make
characters talk to you, sing to you when you were sad and reproach you when you
made a mistake. And only one other series ever created that impression on me;
I’ll get to that later. Rowling created a whole other world; simple yet
complex, good and bad, and yet completely lovable. Cheers to all the HP
fanatics!
4.
Inkheart Trilogy
Cornelia Funke may not be that well known
but these three books of hers – Inkheart, Inskspell and Inkdeath are
beautifully and wonderfully written, so much so that this is the only other
book that can make characters come alive
and talk to you. Ironically, that’s what this trilogy was about; characters
coming out of books, getting pulled back in, magic and lore galore.
5.
Ken Follet
I LOVE YOU. Period. The amount of history,
love, war and peace in his books can never be matched. He’s written enormous amounts and yet the mighty
1000 page novels of his make complete and utter sense. Finishing his books can
give you a feeling of satisfaction that you’ve probably never felt before. Must
read books of his include World Without End and its sequel The Pillars of the
Earth, and The Century Trilogy- of which the third book in the series is to be
released any time this year. Waiting kills me.
6.
Dan Brown
Dan Brown impresses me. Beyond doubt and
reason. Angels and Demons was absolutely brilliant. And the Da Vinci Code! I
run out of adjectives when I have to describe his books. Though I consider
Robert Langdon to be a bit silly and foolish, I love how Mr Brown’s woman
characters are always stronger and have the upper hand. Excuse the infinitesimal
small amount of the feminist in me, please. I did not like his latest book, Inferno, but
then the love I possess for the rest of his five awe-inspiring books trumps my
selfish viewpoint.
7.
Khaled Hosseini
Your books make me cry, sob, laugh in the
midst of tears and when I finish them, I smile for hours together for no
particular reason. A Thousand Splendid Suns affected me the most. I didn’t
sleep for three days , was just pacing around the house and re-thinking about
things. Mr.Hosseini, your writing is simply
beautiful and soul-touching, if I may.
8.
Ayn Rand- The Fountainhead
Intense. Heart-breakingly difficult to
read. Philosophical. Impossible to understand. Characters so strongly defined that
it gets scary at some point of time. This is more than just a story. It’s life
through this frighteningly transparent looking glass. It’s in a real and an
ideal world at the same time; a fine line drawn always to confuse you more than
ever. This masterpiece of a book took me a month to put down. Objectivism took
a whole new meaning, and so did perspective. Read it, y’all. It’ll change some
inexplicable part of you. For good.
9.
John Steinbeck- East of Eden
This was the only book, I must admit, that
bored me in its early chapters. It was highly descriptive; so much so that I
was willing to leave it beneath a pile of textbooks for a fortnight or so. But
boy, aren’t I glad I picked it up, dusted it and began reading with a fervour
that is hard to describe now. As I read, I grew. I read about horrendous
things. Things we may presume impossible in the real world. Things so
frightening that I even had nightmares about a particular character. Characters
so black and white. This book made me change my mind about the descriptive
writing style. And the ending.. plain beautiful. A special thank you to the
friend who urged me to read East of Eden.
10. Charles
Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities
I was always a huge fan of the Classics. Be
it Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, or Robert
Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Each of them took on a special and unique
meaning whenever I read them. But Charles Dickens took Classics to higher,
unreachable heights. This book particularly, made most other love stories seem
fake, and portrayed The French Revolution brutally and completely accurately.
11. Gabriel
Garcia Marquez -Love in the Time of Cholera
Written in Spanish and recently published
in English, this book speaks of a heart-wrenching love story in a long
forgotten time and place. As far as love tragedies with an anti-climax goes,
this book’s a winner! Marquez brings out tenderness and brutality, and spreads
a message that love could be everlasting and fickle at the same time. The end
to this tragedy was somewhat disappointing as I read the book with an
expectation, which I shouldn’t have. Yet the experience of just travelling
through the times of cholera, feeling the pain, misery and the occasional joy
of the three closely-knit characters was unforgettable.
12. Markus
Zusak- The Book Thief
Written by Death. During the Second World
War. My favourite history topic. Ingenious writing. Painful heart-hurting
story. Finished in five hours. All of you, Must Read Now.
There are so many more books, so many more authors I’ve
failed to mention. Especially J. R. R. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin who
produced entire worlds through their mind-blowing series Lord of the Rings and
Game of Thrones respectively. I hope I finish them off real soon. Also a
special mention to John Green who made a LOT of people sob (including me) after
going through The Fault in Our Stars. AND SHAKESPEARE. How could I ever forget
the man who gave us Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, the Hamlet and so many
more. A big thank you to Arthur Conan Doyle who gave life to the eccentric Mr
Sherlock Holmes. I bet he never knew the ruckus he was going to create in the
hearts of the ‘Cumberbitches’. Jawaharlal Nehruji’s letters to his daughter
Indira were compiled into this heart-warming book ‘Letters from a Father to his
Daughter’ which I absolutely adored!
As of now, I’m going to stop, even though I don’t want to.
Here’s to my dream of creating my own library and reading till the day I die..
