Honestly, picking a few books out of thousands you’ve read is insanely difficult (never realised this before). After much deliberation, i am listing out the ones which are my favorites in my mind at this moment, though this list changes by the hour, so dont be surprised if i quote something completely different as my favorite later:

1) Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell– recommended by my mom and from where my reading journey and my love for Scarlett O’Hara started and is still going strong “with enough courage, you can do without a reputation”

2) I, Claudius by Robert Graves – Initiation into “historical fiction” as a genre which soon became my favourite

3) From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman – Post Leon Uris Exodus, i did a lot of googling on Israel and its formation, this book helped put things in perspective. I can re-read this book and still get the same pleasure even now.

4) Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak – if you are feeling low, open this book at any page and it infuses a sort of positive energy in you….the pleasure of visiting Rumi’s home town in Turkey was much enhanced for me. “If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough”

5) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – Looking for a laugh, open this one at any page “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”

6) Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri – interesting, funny and short…thanks  to a fellow traveler and now a good friend for introducing me to these hilarious yet poignant detective series.

7) Did i say i read all genres, so yeah romance features as well – right? Susan Elizabeth Philips is my favourite romance writer…my favourite being “Fancy Pants” predictable, funny and teaches you a lot about golf

8) The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins – How do i define this book – poignant? “The re-dipping of the dishes was a small matter, but the emotional texture of married life is made up of small matters. This one had become invested with a fatal quality” How would a wife feel when the husband leaves her not for a younger and a prettier woman but for an older and an uglier woman. Which alternative is better – really?

9) The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain – recently read this one and top of mind is high. It changed the way i read Ernest Hemingway….he became human, a man with faults and immaturities and insecurities instead of this super amazing writer i always admired. I truly believe, behind every successful male writer there is a woman

10) Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley  – this not yet teenage girl ( in the beginning of the series) is a precocious child with ediatic knowledge about poison and chemistry, who takes unusual pleasure in playing pranks on her elder sisters when in need of attention. This character is quite a budding detective to the chagrin of the local police. “If there is a thing I truly despise, it is being addressed as “dearie.” When I write my magnum opus, A Treatise Upon All Poison, and come to “Cyanide,” I am going to put under “Uses” the phrase “Particularly efficacious in the cure of those who call one ‘Dearie.”

Get cracking! Its your turn now 🙂 tell me about the books you love.