The Hindustan Times: My Top 5 All-Time Favorite Reads
I recently created this list of my Top 5 All-Time Favorite reads for the Hindustan Times on Sunday May 4th 2014.
Let me be quite candid — it was no easy exercise.
I should mention then that a close 6th place would go to the British classic, Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen which I absolutely love for style, humor and her evocative use of prose. This was the literature of my childhood and is in many ways foundational for me as a reader and a writer.
Some of that comes out the ‘literary training’ given to a child growing up in the Mumbai ’70s and ’80s. As I grew older, I was clearly more impacted by American, rather than British, classics and contemporary fiction. Not that it’s a competition.
The editor asked me to specifically mention why I liked them but because newspapers are always strapped for space, I’ve posted the full story below.
Also, I should mention that they are not listed in order.
The Hindustan Times – Reenita’s Top 5 All Time Favourite Reads
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Along with fantasy fiction, I have a special affinity for problem solving. Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland is a literary masterpiece not only in its ability to challenge your imagination with bizarre scenarios but also as a piece of mathematical literature. Like some of our ancient Sanskrit texts that use code or contemporary kids’ stories like theNumber Devil, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Caroll) combines the principles of algebra, abstract mathematics and projective geometry with highly evocative language and imagery. Abstract mathematics for example are responsible for the Cheshire cat’s grin which appears and disappears; the caterpillar’s advice to Alice demonstrates the absurdity of algebra both in her outcome and in the twists and puns of the language he uses – “Keep your temper.” And what I love best about the story is the fact that Dodgeson, an Oxford mathematics professor, has clearly written it to entertain himself by poking fun at this colleagues.
Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris
David Sedaris is my favorite humorist and deepest stylistic influence. Rarely do you find someone who has the knack of twisting regular characters and ordinary life situations to portray them such that the reader is reduced to chuckles in moments. His story about Crumpet the Elf in Santaland Diaries is perhaps my favorite example of the sardonic wit and incisive social critique he uses to cut through cultural euphemisms. This is one book I find myself purchasing multiple copies of each year to give out as holiday gifts.
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Too Big to Fail is definitely one of the most important narratives of our time – relevant from a historical, financial, economic and political perspective. A deep and incisive history of the epochal crisis that almost brought down the entire financial world, it is brilliantly reported by one of the most skilled financial journalists in existence. I have always been an avid reader of Sorkin’s New York Times blog – Dealbook, my go-to guide for the daily comings-goings of international finance. This particular book is a hundredfold more intriguing – it brings to life the drama and turmoil of a cast of characters comprising the most powerful people in finance and politics, people whose machinations exemplify the fear and greed underlying pure capitalism.
The Charaka Samhita (or the compendium of Charaka) is one of our three pieces of ancient medical literature that constitute the main texts of Ayurvedic medicine. Entirely written in Sanskrit verse, it details 120 chapters of scientific theory and fact established thousands of years ago. As a reader I ask myself over and over again whether this is a work of art or science and the beauty of Charak is that indeed it is both! For the most accurate picture, I constantly find the need to hone my Sanskrit skills so I can read the original text, English language translations I find are limited in scope – Sanskrit after all is a language which lends itself better to interpretation rather than translation.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger
Just as the life of Holden Caulfield, took America by storm, this particular book has carved a place in my soul. What I love about it is the brutal honesty of its narrative – what reader cannot on some level identify with the mindset of a young teenager disenfranchised from society, frustrated by his own helplessness and scared of entering the nasty real world? As writers, we recognize that these are traits true of us all…it is perhaps why we write. And why this story will always be timeless.
