Thursday 6 December 2012

Books

Since I was very young I have always loved books. I started reading very early in life. I started with the Amar Chithra Katha's, Tinkle and the like. I remember my mother reading the Mahabharata to me ( The comics version of course). I then graduated to reading Enid Blyton books like the Famous Five, Amelia Jane and the like. Enid Blyton's books will always have a soft corner in my heart for her descriptions of picnics and food.



By the time I was 10 I had started reading thrillers, Agatha Christie, Perry Mason and the like. I still love Agatha Christie. I had also started to read hardy boys and Nancy drew. I started to sneak and read Archies comics too ( as my mom thought I was too young to read them). Then when I turned 11 I received a book that I thought was Hardy Boys and got really excited. I thought it was Hardy Boys as I could only see a part of the book under another book and I could only make out the 1st three letters "Har...". It turned out to be Harry Potter. I didn't even know such a book existed. I finished it in 2 days. I loved it.This was the book that propelled me in to the world of books on Fantasy. Around the time I also started reading Robin Cook, Jefferey Archer, Grisham, Sidney Sheldon.




One of my favorite Archer books is As the Crow Flies. I just love how Archer develops his characters over long periods of time. I have gotten emotionally invested in a lot of his books. When I get done reading his books I feel like I have lived through the story depicted and that what happened in the book is all true. This happens to me with all the books I love.




Around the time I was 13 or so I discovered Spy novels. The one that made a great impression on me was "Bourne Identity" by Robert Ludlum. This book was a roller coaster ride to say the least. I devoured the 2 other books in this trilogy - "Bourne Supremacy" and "Bourne Ultimatum". ( I do not consider the new additions to this series.) I like almost any spy novel based during and before the Cold war. I have never really cottoned on to the spy novels that are published nowadays, after the 9/11 attacks. They are almost always on terrorism.


Coming to the genre Fantasy, if Harry potter introduced me to this world, then Lord of the Rings made me fall in love with it and to this day makes me come back for more. I admit I picked this book up when I heard all the hype before the movie was released. When I started reading it I had my Exams coming up in a couple of week's time. I finished close to a 100 pages in an hour's time. Then I had to stop reading till my exams were finished. I couldn't wait to start reading again once they did get over. I even used to read the book with the help of a penlight under my blanket in the night time so that I did not disturb my sister who slept in the same room. Once I finished this book I laid hands on the prequel "The Hobbit" and after that "The Silmarillion". So I basically read the story backwards. I cannot really describe my feelings about this book or how much I admire J.R.R. Tolkien. I do realize that this book has a slight religious overtone but what book steeped in Fantasy doesn't?


My dad has always been a book lover. So has my mom. But my dad could afford to buy books when he was younger so by the time i was born we had a mini library at home. We have various genres at home. So my love for books is eclectic. i don't just like one genre per se. I like a lot of them. One genre I haven't really liked reading as of yet is the Non Fiction books. I just can't bring myself to read them ( except of course any books on science).

Though I do not like one genre the most, I do have my favorites, like the spy genre, fantasy genre and another is the Sci-Fi genre. I guess I've read other Sci-Fi books before it but the first one I can remember reading is "2001:A Space Odyssey". This was the book that set the bar for me. It was not really about aliens for the most part even though the actual expedition was in search of an object just like the one left on earth by aliens. It was weird for me that I was reading this book after 2001 and most of the things Arthur .C. Clarke had envisioned for us by then had not occurred. But they are not impossible. Some of he things mentioned are in the prototype phase by now. It amazes me, the capacity for human thinking and innovation. Another favorite Sci-Fi is the Foundation trilogy and I Robot. I never knew that Math and human psychology combined could predict the future so well.



I am currently reading Cloud Atlas. I have to admit I watched the movie before I started the book. But I can usually keep my opinions of the movie and the book it is based on separate. It's OK... Not something that will leave me with a great feeling at the end of it that will last a long time. I'll write more later on any book that I'll read later on and like enough to actually describe online.

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