The Waffle Iron

BOOK-tagged!!

Shrutz tagged me.. again! And that seems aeons ago, but I'm keeping my promise to you Fhruti (NOT a typo). :D So here's what I read...

To me, reading is an OBSESSION. It doesn't matter WHAT I'm reading, it could be a novel, a mag, a newspaper editorial, a daily cartoon, a comic or the preface of my text-book. But, it makes me all queasy when I don't lay eyes on print for atleast five minutes, EVERY day. Unlike most other voracious readers, I did not inherit my reading habits from my family. NOONE reads in my family (not even second/third/fourth cousins, that I haven't met!).. atleast not the amount any self-respecting regular reader should. I guess it just sprung up in me. I've never really had anyone guiding me to read this or that... so I've experimented with a lot of crap, including James Hadley Chase, a couple of Mills & Boon and a few sleazy Indian authors. I began my reading career with 'Study in Scarlet', a Sherlock Holmes adventure. Of course that was preceded by a stint with Tinkle, Champak, Fairy-tales, Amar Chitra Katha, Sweet Valley University, Carolyn Keene, Franklyn Dixon, etc. Then I moved on to this "phase" with Arthur C. Clarke. That was when I used to frequent the British Library in Hyderabad. I was too young to hold an account (I nagged my dad to get one for me), and too small to reach for the keyboard and search for titles on their online catalogue; so I'd tag along with my dad, gawk in awe at the rows of racks; and scan them for random, interesting sounding names. That's how I chanced upon Clarke. Once, the 'latest arrivals' section had 'Fall of Moondust' featured; THAT caught my fancy, and got me hooked to science fiction.

It's strange that I actually DID read some masterpieces just by picking books that had unusual names. For example: The Club of Queer Trades, by G. K. Chesterton; Garden of Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee; Inversions, by Ian M. Banks; Expedition to Earth, by Clarke and Past Imperfect, by John Matthews. And then, there were times when I'd pick an eye-catching dust jacket, read the title and the review at the back; and borrow it from our TINY local library. By this time, I was also talking to OTHER 'avid' readers, so I was on the way to developing more refined taste. One remarkable thing about my reading history, is that I went through the 'Sidney Sheldon' phase AFTER I'd read a lot of classics, including Jane Austen and Margaret Mitchell. You may ask how I even got down to them, from that elitist perch... I think it was the easy availability of Sheldons in high-school, and the wicked plots and characters that attracted me. I read EVERY Sheldon that I could lay hands on. But NOW, I SHUN them!

I think what makes your 'taste' in books, is what you SEEK through them. Is it just a favourite pastime, a break from your hectic schedule, a source to rejuvenate your expression, a need to stay "in" your circle, or a form of therapy? I guess that question will have a composite answer, but it pretty much leads to solve the books-that-you-LOVE(D) puzzle. The first category would include adventure, action and mystery; the second would include non-fiction (the fact that I HAVEN'T read too much non-fiction implies the fact that I'm mostly jobless); the third will probably mean a lot of epics and classics (??); the fourth should include works by Pulitzer and Nobel prize winners, and the latest 'rage'; and the fifth would primarily depend on WHAT is of therapeutic value to you. But then, I'm sure there's no stereotyping allowed here, and you wouldn't fit into any of these anyway.

To me, a good book is one that is well written, with a distinct style; and one that changes the way I think. Distinct style would be characterised by that of Shakespeare ( for obvious reasons), Jane Austen (yeah! the round-about, LONG sentences, riddled with ten-lettered words), Salman Rushdie (the most insane, inane, bizarre, shocking, outrageous, lurid, blasphemous writing I've ever read), and maybe others that I haven't read. And there are plenty of books that have shaped the way I think, even Sheldon (!!) The ones that I can immediately recall are 'Gone With the Wind', 'The Diary of a Young Girl', 'Kane and Abel', 'Timeline', 'Roots' (I fell in LOVE with Africa), 'The Day of the Jackal', 'H. M. S. Ulysses', Chekhov, 'Frankenstein', 'Wuthering Heights', 'Les Miserables', 'Vanity Fair', 'Life of Pi' and 'War and Peace'. I think I could go on, at my own accord about books, but I'm SUPPOSED to answer these, as a part of the tag-chase:

1. Number of books I own: This is a shamefully small number - about fifty (or less) I think. But it's justified by the fact that nobody reads in my family, and I've always BORROWED books. And besides, I think all my Tinkles, Tintins and Amar Chitra Kathas have been sold. Sigh!


2. Last book I read: I AM reading about four books in parallel at the moment, so its been a coupla' months since I FINISHED reading one. The one I read last is called "Haroun and The Sea of Stories", by Rushdie. It's this VERY imaginative, fairy-tale. And it's HINDUSTANI. :D Has names like 'Baatcheat Chatterjee', 'Iff and Butt', 'Gup', 'Chup', a moon called 'Kahani', 'Prince Bolo'; and a host of other colourful characters. Of course, there's the incisive style and derisory humour.. but well..


3. Last book I bought: That was YEARS ago - Gone With The Wind!! And that was a second-hand copy for hundred bucks. :-I The book is PRICELESS to me. The last book I bought for my friend(s) however, was more recent... but never mind that.


4. 5+ books that mean a LOT to me:
   
   
   
   • Secrets of the Oceans (or something like that): I was gifted this book for my seventh birthday. It was a HUGE, hard-bound book, full of large pictures and scientific literature about the under-water world. I don't know who thought of it (Bless them!) The book was too big for me, but I'd sit cross-legged on the floor and devour those strange creatures. I still haven't lost my fascination for ocean-life - the beautiful sting-ray and the terrifying octopus, the kindly turtle and the ruthless shark...
   
   
   • Wars of the Twentieth Century: Again, I can't name the author(s), 'coz I don't know where it's disappeared. I DIG History, and especially WARS. So this was like manna to me.
   
   
   • Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell): I know there are a lot of people that will scoff at this. But I've read that book thrice over, and it was the first 'epic' novel that I bought. Maybe I attach some emotion to it.
   
   
   • The Rama series (Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee): Like I've said earlier, I've always been charmed by SF. And Clarke does his job well!
   
   
   • Timeline (Micheal Crichton): If you've read the book, it needs no explanation from me. I fancy myself as Marek. :D
   
   
   • The Arabian Nights - The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night [Volume I] (translated by Richard Burton): I know you'd have watched Alif Laila, which by the way, does NO justice to these stories. They date back to the 8th Century AD!! No modern romp can match that of 'The Porter and the Three Ladies', and no Harry Potter can tip Sindbad. I read that book like it was a DREAM!!
   
   
   • Roots (Alex Haley): Gone With the Wind symapthises with the American women of the South, and sort of demonises the Blacks. But 'Roots' gives you a darker perspective. I LIVED every moment of Kunta Kinte's life as I read that.
   
   
   • The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas): A quintessential fairy-tale.. for grown-ups. Very fascinating and very poignant!
   
   
   • Life of Pi (Yann Martel): This is one of the best books that I've read from contemporary fiction. The writing is fantastic, and the story is inspiring. Better still, it's about a tiger - my favourite animal. It shaped the way I now think about religion.
   
   
   • Animal Farm (George Orwell): This one reminded me of 'Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'. It's a BRILLIANT satire.
   
   
   • To Look and Pass (Taylor Caldwell): I can bet most of my readers haven't even heard of this one. Maybe you wouldn't even think of it as a striking comparison with the others that I've listed here. No religious symbolism, no adventure, no SF, no war, no history, no great story-line, no forceful characters, no famous author. But I still hold it high... I think it touched me more closely than most others books did.

I'll pass this one on to Kiran, because he JUMPED at the idea of writing this tag.

posted by Cos Θ @ 2:30 PM