The idea of this question emanates from Quora. Indeed there are books that leave a mark on your soul and never fade away from the cask of your subconscious. Just like other things, books too have an utility attached with them. Good books leave you inspired and crave for more, while shallow books teach us how to avoid overhyped boring books.
Just like me, every reader has a stack of books in their mind from their past reading experience, so today I am going to present a list of random books that I remember even today – because they made my soul happy.
The much appreciated book ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho is a good book, but not the best as it sounds overhyped. I liked it and it inspired me to some extent.
Godan by Munshi Premchand has been into praise for last 70 years. It truly stands up to its reputation.
Pride and Prejudice proved to be a time waster for me. I left it mid way, same fate was met to Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children.
From Amish Tripathi’s collection, I loved The Immortals of Meluha, rest of his books just sounded forced to satisfy his excessive fans. In the Indian Mythological arena, I prefer reading books by Gaurav Sharma, especially The Sullied Warrior duology.
From the cult of Africa, my favourite is Wilbur Smith. His novels map the length and breadth of Africa in a magnificent way. Some of soul-appeasing books are Elephant Song, Gold Mine, The Triumph of the Sun, etc.
In the mafia related books, Hussain Zaidi is a cheap shot. The class is Mario Puzo, novels like The Sicilian, The Godfather, The Last Don – I cannot express my gratitude enough.
No reader is complete without short stories, I love this genre as it doesn’t demand a strict patter of reading. I love reading simple short stories of Ruskin Bond in the Rusty series or mostly realted to children. I tried Oscar and Henry, I couldn’t go through. But lately, I experimented with themes pulping with life and human aspirations and psychic. I found two books way impressive, first was Mumblings from the Depth by Jithu Thomas and Parting of the Strangers by Sattam Dasgupta.
Amidst all genres, there are some novels that are verdant with so much nature and other details that keep one bewitched more than the story. One such soul-appeasing story is Ripples of Eternal Love by Pravin Pandey.
In the dystopian and paranormal, I have not have much experience, but my recent read MIЯЯЯO: at THƎ WƎIЯⱭ WAYWAЯⱭ by Manoj Kumar Sharma. A lengthy novel but worth the new findings.
In the humour zone, I loved just one book of R. K. Narayan: Swami and his Friends. Rest collection like The Talkative Man and Malgudi Days was filled with predictable pages. But there is one book, published recently, named Peppered Minds by Om Somani suggests that excessive of consumption has changed the way humans think. Based on a fountain of comedy and hilarity, this book was like enjoying a fun ride in the amusement park.
I have had less encounters with books falling in the purview of non-fiction or biographies or memoirs, I have read a few cricketers biographies but didn’t find much that could move me. However, recently a book on which I stumbled upon randomly, moved me. It was about India of 1960s and 70s – I mean that time when I was not borne and there used to be fun and camaraderie in the air. It is an impressive account of a father bringing reminisces of his golden days to his children. The book name is Those Were the Days by N.S. Ravi.
The list could have been endless, so I concluded my answer with some of the books that never leave my subconscious.
ibooksta 