Required Reading

There are inky fingerprints across my soul and lines of poetry tangled between my arteries. I firmly believe you can gaze into a person's soul by knowing the books they love, but there are books that should be required reading for everyone. In the same way we recommend our favourite restaurants to   friends so they may taste something amazing, there are books we need our loved ones and the general population to consume. This shared consumption is so precious, to know that someone else understands those feelings when they read that book you love.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the amazing books out there, it's a very personal one crafted over time and rereading. Vitally, these are books I would recommend and excludes the books I could not impose on other people, the strangely serious or farcical short stories that are delightfully ridiculous. These are the ones that spoke to my soul in a way that is accessible.

These books aren't ranked by importance and I scrambled them up anyway to avoid my very obvious favoritism with books. 

I'd love to have your Required Reading list sent to me, via Twitter (@SuvaniaS) or below in the comments. 

Anyway, on with the show and happy reading! 

1. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal 

This was a recent read and it swept me up and took me on a journey. An excellent narrative with characters that reached out of the pages to convey their lives, pain and their multitudes. Initially it seems to be comprised of isolated and tenuously linked stories but they all begin to weave together to a touching finale that left me smiling. It centers around food and chapters divided into dishes that hint at the tantalizing lives of the people within the novel. I appreciate books that allow you to figure out what ties connect people and let you see the formation through time and fate. It's in this list because I think it's the sort of book one needs on hand when your soul deserves a meal of well written fiction.  

2.  How To Be A Woman- Caitlin Moran 

After I read this, I sent it to most of my friends. You don't have to be a feminist to read it but by the end you really find yourself embracing what it means to celebrate being a woman. Be warned there are some ribald anecdotes, but on the whole she addresses everyday matters from puberty to buying a bra to dealing with heartbreak in this refreshing acidic voice that draws you in, as if a friend was confiding in you. Ok I need to repeat the warning that it can get a little "explicit" in terms of the language used for more sensitive readers. This is my disclaimer because I don't want a text saying "There was a bad word.... Ok a lot of them in Chapter 3, Su, why didn't you warn me?". 

Moran bases every chapter in a time in her life and it's painfully honest. It's not some soppy self help book or an actual guide to anything except the inevitable realisation that you are a fabulous creature who has the same hang ups that other women have. It's an inadvertent guide to everyday feminism. It's great. READ IT. 

3.  Why We Broke Up- Daniel Hardman

Plot twist- Daniel Hardman IS Lemony Snicket (look it up) so I hold this teen breakup novel above all others (Sorry, John Green). 

I found myself increasingly disenchanted with a lot of young adult romances because I could see how things would pan out and to be fair, I felt that the premise of this book was poignant and exactly the intensity of emotion one feels when ones heart is broken. 

The structure of the book was poignant. It's in the form of a box of things, Min ( the protagonist who represents the antithesis of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl we are so often given in YA novels) is giving back this to her ex and she accompanies this box with a letter that explains why they broke up. The thing about Min is that she's the best kind of quirky: self conscious and not unbelievable in the least, as most recent female protagonists are in a way that troubles me. It was real because falling in and out of love happens to us all, and not a special snowflake with an overly elaborate backstory.  I felt that the whole book captured that at the end of it, a relationship is just a box of things that narrate something so much more than it appears at first sight. 

4. One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez 

There's nothing I can say that hasn't actually been said about this book. It's a saga about the Buendia family that weaves in masterful elements of magical realism. And Márquez (Who wrote Love in A Time Of Cholera), captures a rich tapestry of South American history through the eyes of his characters. A quick note would be that there are lots of the same names repeated/carried over/ used for different people. It's a mission to keep track of who is doing what if you aren't careful. 

It illustrates allure of wanting to establish a perfect society and break from restrictive tradition and the painful curses that trickle through generations. It was recommended to me and now I will recommend it to you because of the  hypnotic way you suddenly find yourself three chapters down and having no recollection of anything besides the page in front of you. 

It's a feeling. Not a novel. 

 

5. A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket 

I used to go to the library every Saturday and over the course of a few months (that is waiting for someone to bring books 11-12 in) I finished what remains an amazing set of books. It's written in a way that respects the reader (most likely a child). I loved that, I craved that kind of expectation from a book. It made me sit up. It still does. 

It doesn't dwell on the premise that good things happen to good people. Because bad things happen to us all, and more so to those who do not deserve it.  And it feels fruitless to hope for the Baudelaire children who tirelessly strive to escape the clutches of Count Olaf and the looming mystery of the VFD. Packed with wit, unforgiving observations about the nature of good/evil being a grey area and twists that don't come off as cliched, it remains high in my esteem as a set of books. It has layers and mysteries that aren't ever fully explained. Even past the last page of the last book. 

6. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

I have two copies of this book. And an electronic version on every device I have. I cannot reveal how many times I've re-read it. If you peeled back my skin, you would find my favourite parts of this book embedded in my muscles and the ink swirling in my blood. 

I've written at length about my ardent love for the epic and simultaneously simple tale of a girl falling in love, amidst a changing world and the ever tangled web of family interferences in matters of the heart. There is a delicacy in Seth's writing, an unassuming way of talking to the reader that acts as a soft fog. You forget the immense size of the book because each sentence is remarkably simple, it's a comfort. He encapsulates human emotion so well, and furthermore- reality. Nothing is sugar coated, not love and certainly not loss. 

It's a sprawling novel but the actual events happen in a thin slice of time, the reader has stumbled into this brief moment of interconnected lives and the beauty of it leaves you wanting more- demanding explanations and pressing for further consequences.

Vikram Seth is my favourite author and I have been dying because the sequel has been threatening to be released for far too long. A Suitable Girl cannot come soon enough for me (VIKRAM SETH, PLEASE SOME OF US ARE WAITING ANXIOUSLY- PLEASE PUBLISH IT SOON)

Favourite line (I had to include this because I adore the snide humor of Amit Chatterji, one of the characters)

" 'You can't blame her,' said Amit. 'After a life so full of tragedy anyone would become hard.'

'What tragedy?' asked Mrs. Chatterji.

'Well, when she was four,' said Amit, 'her mother slapped her--it was quite traumatic--and then things went on in that vein. When she was twelve she came in second in an exam...It hardens you.' ” 

7. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

The Little Prince is special beyond measure, it touches my soul in a new way every time. I sobbed through the film (which was very well adapted). I will probably always cry when I read it. I wear my sentimentality with pride.

It is the book I turn to when I am terrified of growing up and forgetting. It is a comfort and reminds me to see magic in the simplest things. The Little Prince has layers, a simple story for children and an extended metaphor for adults. Read it so you can remember things you did not realise you have lost.

Read it because sometimes it takes a children's book to teach you about being grown up. 

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye" 

 

8.  The Hundred Foot Journey - Richard C Morais 

A love letter to food, family and the essence of life itself (I obviously have a thing for the niche market that is Books About Food And Family). But my favourite books are the ones that pull you in, wasting no time with frills and exposition, and this delivers that short intense burst of characters and the brevity of life. The basic plot revolves around a family who, after a tragedy, find themselves adrift from their familiar home in India and cast into stark grey world where they are seen as so different. They are vermillion in an expanse of ashy grey and the beauty of this novel is that that colour seeps into every crack. It's a quick read but marvelous. 

9. Tiny Beautiful Things- Cheryl Strayed

Where do I start? Wow, this is a collection of letters that Cheryl Strayed (who wrote Wild, which is just as searing and painful in its beauty) in her capacity as Sugar in Dear Sugar for The Rumpus. It's not an advice column, you can't reduce it to that. It's a collection of people who have desperate questions about life and their pain and reconciling that pain(explicit, angry, shattered pain) and she responds with raw emotion and a perspective that partly answers those questions but also includes very personal insights and experiences. It is a brutal and magnificent collection. It hurts to read at times but it is necessary pain. There were some letters I couldn't bring myself to finish because I did not have the capacity to process that level of emotion and hurt. 

I found myself moved, again and again through each letter and suddenly I was not the same person I had been when I had started reading it- and if that isn't the point of everything then I don't know what is. 

10. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy  - Douglas Adams  

Douglas Adams crafted the perfect mix of wit, adventure and an existential crisis waiting to happen in this book (and the absolutely wonderful sequels that follow after it). This is Required Reading because it's one of those books that has so much to offer. I suspect even people who don't enjoy science fiction would take away a lot from this. Arthur Dent is a reluctant protagonist who would rather be at home with a nice cup of tea but finds himself on a whirlwind adventure. It ultimately reminds us that bureaucracy forces us to stand in queues filling out forms to avoid your friend being executed as well as demolishing homes to make way for a byway and that the answer to Life And Everything is 42. Also always carry a towel and Don't Panic when you read this, dear ones.  

Happy reading and once again, please send me your Required Reading lists!!

(All images contained belong to their respective owners and none belong to me.) 

To love a bookworm- A letter for him

My dearest friend,

To love a bookworm is a romance unlike any other. She may be 17 or 68 but she remains the girl who just bought her first novel and feels that same rush of delight when she buys a new book.

 First of all, you must be patient with her silence when her lips hint at a smile. Her thoughts have become lines of poetry that are entwined with thoughts of you. At least they are... Sometimes.

 She might scribble them in the margins of a notebook but to read them to you would render her shy and gauche. But her mind does compose poems for you. She does wonder about practical things like shoes and the straightness of her fringe. Walk along the shelves as she hunts for a new treasure , hold her hand or the books she considers.

 Miracle if you get to choose a book for her- never mention the book again. She will tell you how you just have to read it the moment she closes it. She will not beg but heed her wisdom. Until then, she is likely to have a stock of books that are either read as soon she walks out the shop or she will let it lie until it calls her name out. But mention it and you awake a dark beast of guilt for not reading the book you picked out for her. And it will taint the reading of the current book in her hands for a chapter or three.

You must remember that you are a romantic hero of sorts in her mind. Since she was a little girl she wondered about you before you knew her. She created a mosaic of all the "perfect " men. But one hopes she realised you are not going to fit that muddle of Darcy and Heathcliff and Marius.... But she sees all the little glimmers of all her great literary loves in your smile. You might be practical or sporty or you may read but not the way she does. But she knows that you cannot be expected to live up to her ideal and instead you begin to define the idea of love that she has. Romance her in the way she pines to be romanced- to be courted and written letters (a thoughtful email will suffice, dear boy). She may have a secret love of umbrellas(Because Jo in Little Women found herself confessing love under one) or she might run her hand along brick walls to chance upon Diagon Alley. These quirks may be secret or she will tell you. Don't ridicule her little dreams that she builds on clouds of fancy.

Her moods may be strange. After all, Mr Rochester broke poor Jane's heart and left your beloved inconsolable for a week when she put the book down and refused to go any further until she felt calm again. Her tears may fall while reading The Notebook and it is the cruelest deed to laugh at her. You don't understand how deeply she feels for Noah in that moment. The next time she has a book she may burst into laughter and feel no shame in rocking in her chair as she tries to explain the joke to you. (Nod and try to see the humour). 

She will have ebooks, old books, new books, bits the dog chewed books. She may have all those or just one type. They are her family and she will likely hold them dear for as long as she lives. Enid and Roald will stay, even if you don't. There is a list of books she wants to keep for her children and a list she will ban from her house . She will scrunch her face up in dark anger if you or anyone suggests she gives her old books away. Because what if she has the urge to reread all the Anne of Green Gables books (which should be read every 4 years or so... Just in case) and she could not find them? Exactly.

She will have a mind that always craves a story and a heart that yearns for the kind of love she thinks doesn't happen in this century anymore. Surprise her and read a book(or try). Her eyes will sparkle like the heart of the mountain and you will be the one to rule over her heart. 

She will never say it - But try to love her as much as she loves you and her books.

Kind regards.

The Bookworm

There are very few people ( I believe) that have a love affair with books , as I have had .There probably are more than I naively estimate but very few who I've encountered .I come from a family who (mostly) love books and who have nurtured this adoration I have .This obsession with the almost woody scent of the pages bound together is insatiable. It is filled with delighting in older books that are slightly richer in scent with softer pages that have been held before to the crisp scent of just unwrapped and virginal pages of a new book where the ink feels minutely raised off the page. It is the inscription on the front leaf , maybe a birthday wish or the current owner (I always write my name and the year I received the book in a corner of this page) that sprinkles enchantment on the book (still unread) or the nostalgia of buying and experiencing a new story.

I've detailed before how I was introduced to reading but it is how I took to books and the large supply of them , that probably shaped me for the rest of my life . It's strange how all my favourite things to write about tie back to books ,be it the books I find in flea markets or the ones I read with the stain of mulberry still faintly on my fingertips or (this was the most common) the books I voraciously went through on rainy days.

I think everyone knew how much I liked books, because now and then someone would send a book with my mother for me to read or enquire at family events about what I was reading . I don't think I spent any part of my childhood without a book nearby , I stuck to the classics or books that were older because early on I developed a love for the style of writing and the references to a time long past . Little Women , Black Beauty or Great Expectations were regular books I read when I was much younger.

Once ,my uncle brought a box of books (I recall it being from somewhere where the owners where getting rid of old stuff as they were moving) home . They provided some of the nicest company on a winters night , when I sat with them and a heater to spend the night , sometimes only sleeping as I watched the sun rise .The books in that box took a while to get through , all the inscriptions were obviously a bit old or illegible in the faded cursive script .But I read every single one .

The local library was another favourite spot but I would always accrue fines for forgetting to bring a book back (often borrowing piles of books using 3 different cards ) until I had read all the good ones and couldn't find any new tastes to delight my palate .But every Saturday after dancing or piano ( that is another story altogether really) we would go and with my head tilted at 45 degrees I would scour the shelves for something new .Until nothing new took my fancy anymore and I moved to other sources .

And then there was Mum and Dad ,who bought me books because I would spend all time at the mall looking through bookshops .and would start reading the new book as soon as we got into the car . It was Dad who suggested many books when I was at a loss and who would talk to me about these books we both read (many times leading to a telling off by my mother and sister who had not been able contribute at all) . I loved those discussions because I felt like a person , not merely a being who was present .It was when no one could say I was wrong for thinking what I thought because they hadn't felt the book as I did .I began to see people a lot better as I didn't expect only good or only malice in everyone .They taught me about the facts of life through the many eyes of people who had lived in different era's or circumstance .

I don't think my father ever handed me a book that had no significant impact on my life .They all did in some way or the other .

I guess I could end by saying that I started reading books to learn about this open ,unknown world around me , but by reading them I soon began to understand the people in my life and how to deal with things better .They showed me how beautiful something as simple as a river in the morning light could be ,or how the smallest dreams could manifest into something much more .