back to back reading

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Grace tagged me on facebook to share 7 of my favourite books. Really? ONLY 7?! With 5 decades of reading and a personal library of close to a 1000 books, How can I choose just 7 - you can relate to this feeling, right!

But I took this as an opportunity to start a new album and share the books that are in my home. It is taking me through some nostalgic moments. I invite you to share my journey .... No promises, but I’ll try to do one post per week on my book collection.

Under the tag "books I read", you can find my old posts & pics about a few books, most with a tatted bookmark. I'll try not to repeat them, if possible.

Back in the ‘80s, with my very first paycheck, I ended up in a bookstore. This became a monthly habit. My checklist included classics, complete works preferably in hard cover/binding.

The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde was among the very first of such buys.

Oscar Wilde has such a wonderful way of presenting stories laced with humour and satire, whimsy characters, and witty epigrams. But reading his plays back to back revealed that he often repeated them! I penned a few thoughts on back-to-back reading here

I wonder if these plays will impart the same pleasure now - age and experience or time has a way of changing one’s preferences, one’s perspective…

The Picture of Dorian Gray remains one of my favourite novel for the message it imparts.

I’ve read all his short stories, a few of his sonnets, ballad, and De Profundis. The latter revealed a sad and weak side of the sensitive author. He was also born in the wrong era. 

I didn’t get around to reading most of his essays, and a lot of his poems, etc.

Though huge (almost 2 inches thick!) and hard cover, it is surprisingly lightweight! But the print is too small to read comfortably now - this is where e-readers score over print. Nevertheless, it sits proudly and worth every penny.

()()()()

The Complete Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This is a box set of 2 volumes, and I have All 4 novels and all 56 stories, back to back or more literally,  cover to cover!!! (the marks of reading are visible on the spine and covers ;-P) Just could not put it down. I consider this character the best sleuth among all I’ve read, and Doyle’s suspense consistently the best. He generally has very few characters, and spins the mystery around those handful….unlike Agatha Christie who collects oh so many characters in every single story.

I also enjoy the single-minded focus and logic of the story and of the detective work.

One peeve, though, is that the complete picture is not painted and a vital clue is mentioned towards the end, thus preventing the reader from participating. But the story still holds one’s attention to the very end.

I liked the TV series where Jeremy Brett plays Holmes – a bit over the top, but like I said, the stories are so compelling ….

This box set is actually my 2^nd or replacement buy. I had lent my original collection (a leather-bound complete works) to a friend and it never came back!

So what are your thoughts?

Books I Read - I

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Looking for good fiction ?

Quick reads for that lazy afternoon ?

A different perspective ? 

Here are a couple of books that I enjoyed. Both cater to different moods, but are love stories with a difference !
As chance would have it, at the beginning of 2013 as well as 2014, I happened to read two wonderful books, both with a Pakistani connection. Nothing deliberate, but a happy coincidence !

1.  “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” by Helen Simonson

This book had been on my to-read list for some time, based on some review & I finally bought it in early 2013.

It is a pleasurable read, reminiscent of Wodehousian language & humour.

Set in a small village in UK, it exudes an old-world English charm. The simple flow, witticisms, subtle humor, English manners & etiquette, Asian customs, etc. have all been interwoven in simple language.

Love blossoming between two elderly, lonely individuals from very different cultures, but with their own sensibilities & ideals.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story; one can breeze through it. Yet, for all its lightness, there is room for thought. A perspective into the needs & travails of senior citizens.

A feel-good book that I can go back to again !

2.  “In The Orchard, the Swallows” by Peter Hobbs

As Dec of 2013 came to a close, I bought this book at a flea market for just Rs 50/- (that’s less than 1 USD !!!). The title & very simple cover captivated my attention at first glance. Boy, was this book totally worth the read !

An exquisite story about love & power & the Power of Love.

It is a very short book, with equally short & succinct chapters. Even with my snail’s pace, I could’ve finished it in one sitting. But there was something so binding in its languid narration that I just could Not read more than a few chapters at a time. The shortness & slow pace of writing are in keeping with the narrator’s own traumatic experience & I simply could not bring myself to force the pace. To do so would be a betrayal to all that the unnamed narrator had undergone & felt. One needed to imbibe it within oneself.

Yet, it is not a depressing tale, in that it does not dwell on the harsh & unjust imprisonment. Instead it is a story of how love sustained hope & life.

But the blurb says it best.
"This is a beautiful & tragic story that so delicately charts, with profound & devastating effects, the parallels that exist between love and power. It is rooted in the present yet has the timeless quality of a myth; like a jewel, it contains more light than seems possible." - Hisham Matar
"Not only has Peter Hobbs produced a timely study or regional transition & its human cost, he has written a terrifically fierce love story. Rarely do contemporary novels possess such refractive power & emotional sincerity. What an acute, brave book this is." - Sarah Hall

Blurb of "In the Orchard, the Swallows" by Peter Hobbs

Happy Reading !