Book meme

I don’t usually do such stuff but this one got me interested enough to do it without any prompting.
Taken off: Trisha Reloaded

1. One book you have read more than once

Geroge Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It’s a classic, and rightly deserves to be read more than once. The book’s famous for the totalitarian state that Orwell so brilliantly depicted, providing insights into the nature of (state) power, which can subvert reason and human passion. It is also a good work of fiction – Orwell’s lucid writing, as with his other works, makes for a good read.

2. One book you would want on a desert island

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I don’t know, but this is a book whose amazing story would likely be able to provide psychological comfort, optimism and strength to one on a desert island. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind having The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays and Reportage – I can never get enough of Orwell’s excellent prose.

3. One book that made you laugh

Pride and Prejudice. Thankfully there ever was a Jane Austen, who wrote this extremely delightful book. I can’t recall another writer who displays such immense wit in his/her writing, so elegant and vivacious, dripping with irony at every turn of the page. She gave us the ridiculous Mr Collins and lively Elizabeth Bennet, both of which characters one will always recall with pleasure.

4. One book that made you cry

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. McCourts’ autographical account of his childhood is at once funny and poignant, stirring at one’s heart with his self-deprecating humour. His writing is heartfelt and draws great empathy from the reader who feels for his remarkable Irish childhood years.

5. One book you wish you had written

Immortality by Milan Kundera. Though Kundera wrote in Czech and it is the translated version that I read, I am drawn by his power to weave a story and tell it from the perspectives of his different protagonists. His novel, and the way he writes, makes you ponder about life; it is through his writing that I learn to see how life is strung together by events and coincidences that play out and link with one another. One incident, one inconsequential act, begets another, and another – eventually, they assume a course and become the narrative of one’s life.

I would also have wished I had the genius of story-telling like Roald Dahl, who, in his book Tales of the Unexpected, wrote in a compelling manner and with subversive wit.

6. One book you wish had never been written

I would like to think that I read books only after ascertaining that they are more or less worthy reads, so I can’t think of one which I wish hadn’t been written. In truth, I am hardly a well-read person, so it means I am not acquainted with a large pool of known works to be able to submit one for this. In any case, if a book (in my opinion) is boring or poorly written, I wouldn’t have gone on to finish reading.

7. One book you are currently reading

I’m currently reading a non-fiction and a fiction work:

Contentious Journalism and the Internet: Towards Democratic Discourse in Malaysia and Singapore by Cherian George, and

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri

I first read Cherian George when I was doing research on Singapore politics. As an establishment journalist-turned-academic, he writes thoughtfully and offers some very lucid insights into local politics. The other book is a debut novel by its author. As The Times wrote of the book, ‘Extraordinary…a book that spins gold out of the straw of ordinary lives’ – I can’t agree more.

8. One book you have been meaning to read

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Also, I have been meaning to pick up Lolita and finish reading where I left off. It’s been so long I think I need to start all over again.

9. One book that changed your life

No, I haven’t read any book which I can honestly say has changed my life. Different books I’ve read may have affected me in some way, but not to the extent of the sort that would qualify as life-changing. Perhaps, I’ve not yet met with any momentous events in life which could have just provided the occasion for a particular book to inspire me in a life-changing sort of way.