Books

Reading books is an obsession with me. I primarily read fiction and am very selective about the authors I read. Usually, when I find an author good, I try to finish off all the books in his series. So here is a short account of my reading habits.

As with most kids, I started out by reading Hardy Boys (Franklin W.Dixon) and Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene) at my school library (PSBB-KKN) at the age of 10. I read numerous books by Enid Blyton too. The Five-Find-Outers with Fatty and his bag of tricks was my favorite. Soon enough, I moved onto Agatha Christie, whose mysteries have made her the best selling author in the world. I have read a sizeable amount of her works and still do when I can get hold of a copy. Also worthy of mention is one of the few great Indian story writers, R.K.Narayan. His timeless tales woven around the town of Malgudi and the antics of Swami and his Friends still linger in my mind. His recent demise is indeed a great loss.

At this point, I got hold of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. It had been lying in our house unnoticed in two leather bound volumes. One has to read Doyles' works to truly understand the amazing potential of a keen sense of observation combined with a sharp brain. To this date, I stand by Sherlock Holmes' words to Dr.Watson, where he compares the human brain to a storage area with a limited capacity. It is upto us to watch and remember things that will be of use to us. If instead, one chooses to dump all sorts of information in that space, the brain looses it ability to work efficiently.

Previously, when I travelled to Srivilliputtur, the home town of my grandparents from my mothers side, I used to visit the Pennington Library there. My dear brother, Rajesh, who had also been bitten by the fiction bug accompanied me on all my literary excursions. The two of us used to sit there for hours together reading and someone had to be sent daily to drag us back home for lunch. And we also had to be forcibly pushed out when the library closed for the day. The library had a great collection of Isaac Asimov and we used to go at the rate of one book a day. Nearly a decade after, I can still recall off-hand the three laws of robotics propounded by him, such was my involment in his books.

This went on till the age of 14. I found few other authors interesting and I remember adding only the Three Investigators, created by Robert Arthur with the customary introduction by Alfred Hitchcock and P.G.Woodhouse, with his rib-tickling English humor, to my collection. The three question marks (???) used by the Three Investigators to denote their identity are to this day my code for having to investigate something, be it a code of program or some uncertain task in my daily affairs. Then, I chanced to read Bear Island by Alistair MacLean and for the first time, I found an extreme liking for the style of an author. At this time, I was a member of the lending library, the Morning Star Library (I still am a member of this quaint little library, though it is now called just Star Library) and also had access to the Madras Gymkhana Clubs' extensive library. From these two, I got hold of and finished reading all 29 novels by MacLean in two years time. I even polished it off by reading the few books published by Alastair MacNeil, who developed on the unfinished books by MacLean.

The urge to read grew rapidly and soon, I was working away at Desmond Bagley, Jack Higgins, Frederick Forsyth and Robert Ludlum. While Bagleys' and Ludlum's works I have finished, I am yet to complete reading Higgins and Forsyth as I havent' been able to lay my hands on a couple of their novels. Though Ludlum passed away a few months back, let us hope that he is re-Bourne to continue his new Covert-One series featuring Lt.Col.Jonathan Smith (I couldn't resist this ghastly pun!). I also got to reading Erle Stanley Gardners' legal thrillers starring Perry Mason. Gardner is one of the best selling authors in fiction history, and coming from a family of lawyers, this was all I needed to read his books. It was at this time that Jurassic Park, the film, was released and that shot Michael Crichton into limelight. Not satisfied with the movie, I checked out his book and found it even more engrossing. His latest book as I write, Timeline is one of the most convincing novels I have read on the much written about suject of time-travel. I also tried out a few of Stephen Kings' novels, though my liking for his books grew over time.

By now, I was at college and I moved on to Mario Puzo (author of the Godfather series, if you remember. Poor chap passed away recently barely completing Omerta), Robin Cook and Jeffrey Archer (whose works I have finished). In the meanwhile, my dad presented the Runaway Jury by John Grisham (also known by the movies 'The Firm' and 'Pelican Brief' based on his novels). I enjoyed his works, which are based on facets Americas' legal system, and went on to finish off his books. Okay, I am yet to read his latest bestseller, The Painted House, though I hope to correct this lapse soon. Wilbur Smith, with his tales woven in Africa, caught my fancy next. The saga of the Courtneys and de la Rays is highly engrossing to say the least. The vote for my favourite author would be a close contest between Alistair MacLean and Wilbur Smith.

Towards then end of my college days, my interest grew into Dick Francis with his equinine stories, George Orwell of the Animal Farm fame and Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the world reknown science fiction guru now settled in Sri Lanka. This was abut the time when I was a member at the British Council Library, Madras, which stocked a good collection of these English writers. Tom Clancy, Ken Follet and Ian Fleming had also caught my interest and I seek them out when I get them time. Fleming's creation, James Bond is among my favourites not just in print but in movies too and for once, I will probably finish watching the series of Bond movies before I complete Fleming's literary collection. Sometime around then, Rajesh had introduced me to Erich Segal, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, who seem promising. The last two authors have penned Freedom at Midnight, which I personally hold as one of the defenitive books based on the events culminating in Indian Independence and the Partition. This is one book I would urge any Indian to read to get a deeper understanding of our history.

When I first flew to Bloomington for my Graduate studies at Indiana University, I started reading A Perfect Spy by John le Carré during the flight. It was a slow paced book, but oddy enough, it had a touch or realism that I had not found in books by any other author. So it did not come as a surprise to when it recently came out that le Carré had indeed been a British spy and most of his books were based on personal experience. The county library in this town is extensive by Indian standards and has helped me revel in my favourite pastime. Though I have not picked up any new writters, I do get a chance to do better justice to my existing repertoire and reread and cherish some of their classics.

There are other authors I have read and continue to read when I run across them, notable among them being James Hadley Chase, Oliver Strange (he writes westerns featuring gunslinger Sudden a.k.a James Green), Nick Carter, Louis L'Amour etc. but somehow, I havent' read their books extensively either because I could not get further copies of their books or because they were eclipsed by other authors. There is still time though. I am also trying to make amends for missing out on H.G.Wells.

Reading books can be real fun, especially if started at an early age. One gets to learn so many things that we may not know from the course of our daily life. This coming from a person who has read more than twenty score novels over a decades' time (humble aint' I); thats a novel every 10 days. It is much better than watching TV (personally, I watch only cartoons as they seem to be the most sensible programs on air) and needless to say, books improves your English a lot. So happy reading...

NOTE: This page is best viewed in Internet Explorer 4.0 or above at 1024x768 resolution
DISCLIMER: Certain images have been borrowed from sources on the Internet and the rights for these belong to the respective organizations
COPYRIGHT: The contents of this page was created by Yogesh L.Simmhan and all rights for the contents are reserved in him
This page was last updated on July 13, 2001

This site is dedicated to the memory of my dad