Category: Reading

How reviewing my reading list changed my reading

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A few months back I discovered Quora while looking to kill time productively while in office. Though not very active, I took to answering literature recommendations questions and often I receive A2A from some Quora freshers-to recommend one book, 12 books (one quite-an-ambitious guy actually asked for 30 books and that question is still in my Answer Later list. You’ll soon find out why.)

To answer this 30-books-question, I was trying to recall last year’s reads but all I could come up was either a Grisham or Christie. So I decided to list out the books thinking that would help me recall some forgettable reads (Not that I was planning to put those in that 30 books list but it would help me track my reads). So this was what I came up with

Remember Me-Mary Higgins Clark

The Mystery of the Blue Train-Agatha Christie

The Last Juror-John Grisham

Rogue Lawyer– John Grisham

Middlemarch-George Elliot

Silkworm-Robert Galbraith

Sad Cypress– Agatha Christie

The Mysterious Affair @ Styles-Agatha Christie

A Walk to Remember-Nicholas Sparks

Love Story-Erich Siegel

The Painted House– John Grisham

As you can see from this list, except for the last 3, the others are all whodunits. What was merely a suspicion was now a solid fact-that my reading was becoming too narrowed in terms of genres. I started writing down 2K15’s reads. Nothing different there too. It seemed that 2K15 was The Year of Suspense/Thriller Fiction-at least for me.In fact almost all my reads, except for 2 or 3 everything was from the suspense genre. I know that we read for ourselves and being too much into a particular genre is no sin but you tend to stagnate.

That question was a timely wake-up call. I remember that I started binge-reading suspense fiction when I started college. I was already a huge fan of Sherlock and Christie’s works. A chance pick from the school library –On the Street Where You Live introduced me to the Queen of Suspense –Mary Higgins Clark. That started out binge-reading Clark almost close to 11 titles. The same story with Grisham too-legal thrillers were much more pulsating reads.

So, 2K17 called for somewhat new resolution- to look farther than the whodunits. It’s not about the numbers but about the variety. So far I have managed to stick on to my plan. I am still reading whodunits but there are other genre books too. Also, the experience was much more satisfactory-something like trying out a buffet lunch after the routine hostel food. I know, a foodie drives every discussion to food. But that would be a pretty good analogy. The 2K17 reads so far:

The Help-Kathryn Stockett

The Miniaturist-Jessie Burton

A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini

The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho

Each of these books was by a different author on different eras (except for the last) and gave a striking picture of the society of those times. In fact #1 showed me how stories of a bygone era can be told so wittily -the author tells the story of her characters such that you get a superb picture of the society and political climate. You get to know the lives of the commons when history is being made during the 1960’s Civil Movement in America.

#1 made me pick up #2 on the list. Watch out for the review in my next post. In India, doubtless there is no end to stories about the British colonial era.But, this is my first book capturing the Dutch in colonial times. The story takes place in Amsterdam, (not in the colonies). Let me save the rest for the review post.

#3 gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of the people (especially the restricted lives of the women) in a country whose turbulent history has not garnered much attention as did its neighbour’s. This book is on its way to becoming another To Kill A Mockingbird-there has never been something like this documenting that country’s history so well and I doubt if we will have another that can give us a much more stark portrayal.

#4- The first thought that I had after finishing this book was ‘How on earth had I missed this?’-This book gave me a much-needed shot-in-the-arm about getting to work on this blog-whose groundwork (signing up for a WordPress account) had been done about 8 months before. From then, it had been waiting for this superb post that would have the likes and comments pouring in until April 1st 2017. For once, during the Fool’s Day I did something wise.

Currently reading: The Kite Runner

Here’s a great article about cross-genre reading benefits… https://www.bookmasters.com/blog/read-genre

I have given the link because people love anything that comes with facts rather than stories (for some intellectual topics at least).

So, have a look at your reading list today…

P.S : If you think some book should not be missed, please mention it in the comments below. And don’t forget to comment on the post as well.

Of chance encounters….

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The other day when I was arranging my book shelf I came upon the long lost yellowish dog-eared copy of Little  Women-my first ever classic read on love,heartbreaks and such stuff.As I turned over the yellow pages of the book,there was a rush of memories-of the numerous times  I had sneaked this book into my study room and read it instead of studying for tomorrow’s exams,how it landed in my bookshelf,of times when my mom had tried to keep it out of my hands during my exams in my middle school days( but with limited success).

I picked up this book from the book fair that comes to the city every year when I was in the 7th grade.Picking up this book was something like the hero-falls-for-heroine-@-first-sight scene .Just  a small correction here-it was not love @ first sight here.That happened much later.I had not the least idea about this book the day I went to the book fair.I was looking for books to add to my sizeable Agatha Christie and Doyle collection-I was a huge fan of the suspense/detective fiction.I  still am….I had picked up the books which I wanted to and as I was roaming among the stalls reading the plot-summary of some random book that looks somewhat interesting(not that I had any idea of buying the book-probably it would land in my list-of-books-to-read till I get to go to another book fair-my budget ) the cover of Little Women caught my attention.Reading the first 3 pages,I had to admit the story was pretty interesting plus the price was reasonable.(I had already finished my budget on Christie Books that day.)That’s how it got to my bookshelf.

“Chance encounters with people have an everlasting impact in our lives.They give us lessons,new ideas,new insights,new learnings,new experiences-the same holds true for books.”

I still remember my 12 year old self laughing herself silly/getting a lump in the throat and trying not to cry(but not managing it really) over something in this book This was the book that had me laughing out loud @ Jo’s gaffes and skirmishes with the dashing guy-next-door Laurie.(Not that Jo had any idea about such things).It had me in tears when Beth finally loses the battle with her illness.It had me feeling sorry for Laurie over Jo’s refusal(I so wanted the two of them to end up together)..A tomboy who fervently hates anything remotely girlish,a Miss.Malaprop in social scenarios,an outspoken person sometimes to the point of being too blunt,the bookworm who prefers the Romeos from her books while turning a blind eye to the loving glances and a deaf ear to the subtle hints of the next-door-Romeo-I loved Jo March and could identify myself with her big time(only there was no dashing next-door-neighbour :p…Peace!!)

Prior to Little Women,with the books in the suspense genre,there had  been simply the narration of a case- solid facts with insights into workings of the human mind-the emotions were mostly anger,fear,guilt and others in the same line.If there was love,the author gets maybe one or two pairs married for a happily-ever-after ending in the last page.In suspense genre the emphasis had always been on the actions of the character and their outcomes but not the underlying influences like the emotions.Louisa May Alcott’s book showed me the power of words in vividly picturing a scenario.The words were not simply telling a story .They were able to beautifully bring before the eyes of the reader the dreams,the passion/the hopes/the angst/the heartbreaks of the characters so well  that the reader laughed/cried/sympathized with them.

I have since then read several other books where the narrative is at a whole new level in terms of making the reader visualize what he/she reads.But Little Women will always have a special place on my bookshelf-because it introduced me to new ideas and motivated me to try out new things and helped me to grow as a reader.And it gave me one important lesson which I have come to realize in retrospect-Chance encounters with people have an everlasting impact in our lives.They give us lessons,new ideas,new insights,new learnings,new experiences-the same holds true for books.I don’t know how it would have been if I had not been open to trying out something new -probably,I would have found another book that would have shown me those things ,maybe a bit later.But now,I remember this everytime I when I go to the bookstore-I keep my eyes open for some new author/new genre that I have not tried and trust me-it has opened up my horizons to the extent that even I was not aware of in passing but have come to appreciate now.

So,planning a visit to the bookstore this weekend??Or ordering some book online??Or downloading any audio-books??Or just trying out some cool apps out there?Whatever,it is,go for something that you have not tried before-it may be a new genre/new author…You never know what you might find out there…..