September 22,2023
Ever wonder what made writers like Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, etc, the greatest of all time? What made them stand out from the rest? What validation they had unlike their peers? The answer is READERS. Vladimir Nabokov, The Russian writer, who wrote Lolita, used to say that readers are not sheeps, not every pen can tempt them. The GOATs had a set of intelligent audience who knew what a good piece of writing is.
Writing and Reading go hand in hand. Both compliment each other. It’s like a kiss – you can’t do it alone. Reading makes you aware, open-minded and gives you an insight into a world which doesn’t exists for people who don’t read. Reading is like self-stimulating your mind to achieve the mental orgasm. Reading is to mind what exercise is to body.
01.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
“kisi cheez ko agar dil se chaho, to poori kaynat use tum se milane me lag jati hai. ” Remember this scene from King Khan in Om Shanti Om? It became one of most iconic Bollywood scenes and these lines were immortalised there after. All thanks to Paulo Coelho, who actually gave us these lines in The Alchemist. It’s a simple read but an enriching experience.
No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles in his path. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids.
02.
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tobey Maguire, Leonardo Di Caprio are the two names that pop up in your mind when you first hear about the Great Gatsby. The Romantic drama was based on the 1925 novel of the same name.
The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession with the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval and excess, creating a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale of American Dream.
The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession with the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval and excess, creating a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale of American Dream.
03.
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Devastating, heartbreaking, thrilling, moving, unforgettable and the list goes on. One of my personal favourites, Kite Runner is a story of Amir and Hassan. Amir and Hassan are young boys who spend their days playing together but there is something that divides them. It is the class difference as Amir is a rich Pashtun boy but Hassan is his servant’s son. Assef, a bully, often taunts Amir for being friends with a servant boy but it is Hassan who has always protected Amir from bullies.
At the local kite flying tournament, Amir wins and Hassan runs to catch the last cut kite. He manages but is caught up by Assef and his gang. They beat him up and then rape him. Amir sees all of this but is too scared to save Hassan. It is something he cannot forgive himself for but years later, he has the opportunity to redeem himself. But does he manage to raise his voice against atrocities he sees this time around? A story of growing up, discovering family secrets and making life-long friendships, this novel is bound to touch you.
At the local kite flying tournament, Amir wins and Hassan runs to catch the last cut kite. He manages but is caught up by Assef and his gang. They beat him up and then rape him. Amir sees all of this but is too scared to save Hassan. It is something he cannot forgive himself for but years later, he has the opportunity to redeem himself. But does he manage to raise his voice against atrocities he sees this time around? A story of growing up, discovering family secrets and making life-long friendships, this novel is bound to touch you.
04.
To Kill a Mocking Bird – Harper Lee
A modern American literature classic and Pulitzer Prize winner, To Kill a Mockingbird is found on almost every bookshelf and reading list. The plot brings out the issues of rape and racial inequality through the eyes of a six-year-old narrator, and explores the concepts of right and wrong, just and unjust. Atticus Finch, a widowed father of two and a prominent lawyer, encourages his children to be empathetic, and always leads by example. Soon, the story escalates and we embark on a thrilling journey of Finch fighting a black man’s case and his daughter (the narrator) standing up for her father’s honour.
05.
Columbine – Dave Cullen
This book, which took journalist Dave Cullen 10 years to research and write, will keep you reading through the night. It will also make you reconsider any bias you might have had against the nonfiction genre. Columbine explores the school shooting of 1999, leaving no stone unturned and leaving no myth of the event unexplored. It provides an interesting, thorough, and fresh look into an event that dominated the news cycle at the time, switching from the events leading up to the day and the political, media, and community reaction that happened afterward.
06.
Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh
Written by Khuswant Sing, Train to Pakistan is a classic novel that describes the once lived lifestyle of Sikhs and Muslims together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one summer the train arrives with thousands of refugee bodies. It is the first time that the villagers tasted the horror of civil war.The story portrays the enduring love between a Sikh guy and a Muslim girl and surpasses the hatred of civil war.
07.
The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye is a popular read among all the readers going through a phase of rebellion. The protagonist Holden Caulfield has been expelled from his school due to poor grades. He is at a confusing place in life and cannot even imagine telling his parents about the whole ordeal. Quite typical, isn’t it?
The book is the journey of Holden who finds that he is shedding away his childhood to enter the adult world. Like any teenager, he finds it tough and even plans on running away to become a recluse. However, you need to read the book to see if he actually takes the step. Moreover, it will make you live your teenage angst all over again.
The book is the journey of Holden who finds that he is shedding away his childhood to enter the adult world. Like any teenager, he finds it tough and even plans on running away to become a recluse. However, you need to read the book to see if he actually takes the step. Moreover, it will make you live your teenage angst all over again.
08.
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Banned from entering the UK in its year of publication, 1955, Vladimir Nabokov’s astonishingly skilful and enduringly controversial work of fiction introduces us to literary professor and self-confessed hebephile Humbert Humbert, the perhaps unreliable narrator of the novel. He marries widow Charlotte Haze only to get access to her daughter, 12-year-old Dolores, nicknamed Lo by her mother, or as Humbert calls her “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.” Cloaking his abuse in the allusive language of idealised love does not lessen Humbert’s crimes, but allows Nabokov to skewer him where he hides.
09.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Will there ever be a novel that burns with more passionate intensity than Wuthering Heights? The forces that bring together its fierce heroine Catherine Earnshaw and cruel hero Heathcliff are violent and untameable, yet rooted in a childhood devotion to one another, when Heathcliff obeyed Cathy’s every command. It’s impossible to imagine this novel ever provoking quiet slumbers; Emily Brontë’s vision of nature blazes with poetry.
10.
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
If you want to find a love for reading, take our word for it, no one can ignite that emotion other than Murakami. This one is one of the most famous novels by him and his immaculate story-telling skills will transport you to another world.
This one is two intertwined stories. The story revolves around two characters with distinctly different lives but interconnected paths. The narrative moves back and forth, following each plot in alternating chapters. The odd chapters are about 15-year-old Kafka who runs away from his father’s home and the other plot, covered in the even numbered chapters, is about an old man named Nakata who ends with a job as a cat finder.
There are N number of books that you can take up to start reading based on the genre that fascinates you the most. The motive is to read, learn, find magic wherever you look.
This one is two intertwined stories. The story revolves around two characters with distinctly different lives but interconnected paths. The narrative moves back and forth, following each plot in alternating chapters. The odd chapters are about 15-year-old Kafka who runs away from his father’s home and the other plot, covered in the even numbered chapters, is about an old man named Nakata who ends with a job as a cat finder.
There are N number of books that you can take up to start reading based on the genre that fascinates you the most. The motive is to read, learn, find magic wherever you look.
