Saturday, June 8, 2013

Literary Favourites

I happened to spot this every interesting interview experts of the Booker-winning author Anne Enright in the latest issue of Vogue. For every question that I read I had my very own answer popping in my brain. I loved the questions so much so that I decided to make it official and bring it on to blogspot. All the book worms out there will definitely love it.

Book that made me want to write
Five point someone, Chetan Bhagat is one such author who made an average Indian to think and pursue writing. The simple English, the realistic description, the believable characters were the highlights of this book. I still remember I devoured this book in a single day and miserably failed in my Mathematics sessional test of Engineering 3 SEM. What to say, the book was far more interesting than the Laplace Transform.

The book that made me laugh loudest
Up and down in the Dales. This came as a part of four in one stories in Select Editions. I read this after The Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell which was a hard duty book based on the Holocaust. After reading that, Gervase’s book was a breezy ride which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun, hilarious and heart touching exactly what I needed.

The book I wish I’d written
This has to be God of Small Things by Arundati Roy.She may always be in news for all the wrong reasons but her book was anything but wrong. This was proved by the booker prize she got for this book. I will be blantly honest in saying that I somehow did not quite get the book when I first started reading it. But I never stopped reading it and as I read on I fell in love with her style and a very distinct style of depression that the book invoked. I know that if ever I decide to write, I will never be half as good as her but then what’s the harm in wishing.



The book that changes with every read
The two books I have read and re-read at various ages in my life are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and The thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini. The first time I read Jane Eyre, I was in fifth standard and bored. Did not quite understand the book, however over the years it became one of my favourites.
As far as Thousand splendid suns is considered, it is my baby. I am in love with this book and have forced it upon almost everyone I know. And if you are a regular on this blog, you would know it too coz I have bombarded this place with numerous posts about it.

The book I would make everyone read
Our Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita. The book is about my community and my people, hence holds a special place in my heart. It talks about the atrocities and hardships borne by the Kashmiri Pandit community over the last 60 years. 

The book that taught me about love
The Rendezvous by Evelyn A Anthony. There are those conventional love stories; girl meets guy, sparks, issues, misunderstandings and finally the happy endings. I have nothing against such stories, in fact I am the quintessential Mills and Boon girl. I still sneak in copies of Mills and Boon together with my age-appropriate books.
Anyways, coming back to Rendezvous, this was not a regular love story. In fact love was not even in the backdrop of the book. It was just a part of the book which was both beautiful and tormenting. The book taught me at a very early age that love is not about being together, singing songs and dancing around the trees. It is something beyond pleasure and pain. Something beyond life and death and something beyond forever...

The most honest book I’ve read
Yet to read!!



The book I want my children to read There are many books I want my children to read. But then there a list of books which I do not want my children to miss reading. This will include all the snow white, Cinderella fairy tales. I want my children to lose themselves in the fairy tales and grow an imaginative mind. Apart from this I will make sure they read the Enid Blayton’s ~ and form their very own Secret Sevens and Famous Fives.

The book that made me think it all again
This credit goes to Paulo Coehlo for Veronica decides to die. I read this book when I was going through a particularly bad phase in my life. This book changed my outlook completely and swiftly brought me back to sanity and reality. Good or bad, happy or sad...life definetly is worth living. You never know whats in store for you, happiness and good things may  just be round the corner J

Love:
SEPO

6 comments:

  1. boy in striped pyjamasJune 8, 2013 at 5:09 PM

    :)

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  2. सारी पुस्तकों ने एक यात्रापथ बनाया है, सबका कितना योगदान है।

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  3. You so right about CB's Books and I finished both FIVE POINT SOMEONE and ONE NIGHT AT THE CALL CENTRE in One Night. It was the first dash of monsoon way back in 2006 in Mumbai. I was drenched to the hilt. I love your fav and mine include, Time Traveller's Wife, Suitable Boy, Valkyries, Alchemist, HP, Immortals of Meluha and Midnight Children. I confess that I couldn't make sense of God of Small Things. Book I wished I wrote was Three Mistakes of My Life that was so crappy.

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  4. Nice to read about your favourite books :) There are some books in your list which I didn't read, so I made a note of them and will read them :) I trust your choice to be the best :)

    The quotes you've chosen to go with this post are great and they are so true! :)

    Enjoy your reading and hope your list of favourites continues to grow! :) Good luck :)

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  5. good post yar..how u doing? take care friend..best wishes always:)

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  6. "A pen is mightier than sword" is very sharp and contrasting statement.
    A small piece of paper and handwriting's over it can change someone's perception about his/her life at any age.

    When i was a kid loves to read adventure books wanted to become a pilot or a sailor or sometimes "TINTIN",joined into college started reading CB's,romantic books..gave me a lot of new concepts about life,girls,dreams...as time passed on
    moved into careers started reading workaholic books to stretch myself more :P but alas, now need Mr coelho than anybody else as a savior don't know who's next to mold me.

    So time and choice of accepting books change my mind everytime,way of thinking and develops both(+/-) within me ..
    Special thanks and respect to all worldwide authors for their wonderful contribution,who reaches us so easily wid theirs Midas touch..

    Thankyou Sneha for choosing this literary topic and treated in best peripheral way which u are capable off.

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