Image: Pixabay.com
In
this age of reality TV, Twitter and Pokemon Go (which seems to have really gone
somewhere), one may be tempted to ask the question: Why read? In fact, the late Steve Jobs once famously remarked (while
discounting Amazon’s Kindle reader): “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the
product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore.”
Thankfully,
people continue to read—even though there are skirmishes about whether it is
the printed books or the digital ones doing better (or worse) than the other.
What one hopes, though, is that it is not the same book or set of books that
most people end up reading—be it a JK Rowling in the West, or a Chetan Bhagat
here in India (no offence to either writer, even though it may make Rowling
squirm and Bhagat smirk). The diversity of both the readers and the books they
read—and obviously the writers who write them—should grow, I feel. Okay, change that to must.
Having
said that, I’m in a difficult position to proceed with this post. Because, out
of a few hundred books I have read in my life thus far (should have been in the
thousands, I know!), I’m only going to pick up six. (I promise to make a
long-list of my favorites someday.)
So,
without further ado, let me say something about each of them before the World
Book Day gets over--and before some people might be compelled to think it is
all right to skip reading books! Here goes (in no particular order):
The Old Man and the Sea: Master storyteller Ernest Hemingway indeed crafted an
amazing tale of endurance in which an old fisherman is pitted against the might
of the sea and one of its creatures he struggles to catch after a really long
patch of bad luck. How he manages this adventure, what he says (I remember him
saying something like that the fish he was trying to kill was like his brother
in a setting I would never forget; you must read it to know what I mean), and
how he behaves after his ‘victory’…The old man is a real-life hero and the
book, a rare gem.
A Search in Secret India: Paul Brunton’s classic quest to seek out and meet the
real yogis of India in the early part of the nineteenth century is largely
credited with introducing Raman Maharishi to the Western audience. What
endeared me to this book--besides of course the desire to know more about the
Maharishi and his message of ‘Who am I?’—is the honesty of purpose and the
integrity of a journalistic writer to get to the bottom of the truth (whether
he did get to the truth or not is something I’m still exploring, since I haven’t
read his oeuvre and am myself at a ‘seeking’ stage). He met lots of charlatans
and frauds but apparently some genuine yoga practitioners as well, before
finding his inner peace at the Maharishi’s ashram in southern India.
Autobiography of a Yogi: One of the most widely read books in the spirituality
genre, what Paramahansa Yogananda did in this life-changing book was give a
first-hand account of some of India’s sages and saints—besides a glimpse of his
own tenacity to promote yoga and the teachings of his guru, Yukteshwar Giri.
Not to forget the mystical, all-youthful and divine figure of Mahavatar Babaji—Google
it to unlock a cornucopia of information. (Ironically, it is one of the books
Steve Jobs is said to have read many times over, though we cannot be sure of how
much he believed in the book’s divine incidents and miracles.)
Siddhartha (by Hermann Hesse): That this tiny book continues to
engage and enchant millions of readers more than 90 years after its publication
is testimony to its power and message of spiritual journey and self-discovery. It
doesn't matter that it draws from ancient Indian spiritual and Buddhist
thought; what matters is that it weaves in a simple narrative the recurrence of
everything in our lives, the deceptive nature of our day-to-day rituals, the
joys and sorrows of mundane human existence and, ultimately, the "song of
the river" that keeps humming forever in our soul. Beautiful, heartfelt,
ethereal, simple and profound all at the same time, Siddhartha cannot be
recommended highly enough.
Atlas Shrugged: While Ayn Rand’s more famous book is The Fountainhead (which I tremendously
like as well), I have picked up this one here for two reasons. One, it is the
bulkier of the two and you get to stay with Rand all that bit more (if you are
a Rand fan, you’ll know what I mean). Two, I found it more detailed and
expressive of her philosophy of objectivism through an even more richly woven
tapestry of super-solid characters: Dagny Taggert, Henry ‘Hank’ Reardon
(whenever I thought of steel after reading the book, Reardon’s name reared in
my head!), Francisco d’Anconia, Hugh Akston (“Contraction does not exist; check
your premises”)…and, how can anyone miss it, John Galt! Check it out yourself—who
is John Galt to ask you to read it?
The Outsider (also published under the title, The Stranger): This quiet reflection by Albert Camus on life and what matters--through
a seemingly simplistic but profound story of a man accused of murdering his
mother (the accusation resulting mainly from the observation that he did not
follow the norm of crying at her death, if I remember correctly)--is one of
those books that touch you gradually but deeply, irrevocably. It is all right
not to be too ambitious but lead a joyful and uncomplicated life—that is the
message I get again and again from the book, besides revisiting the notions of
what it really means to love, be loved and lose those you love to time’s strange
ways. Simply superb and highly relevant in our consumerist, gadget-obsessed
times.
Like
I said before, this is a woefully short list—but I’m happy to have shared it
with you for what it is worth. Hope you will find at least one or two of them
useful.
Happy
reading :)
