My reading journey so far

I used to read for pleasure as a child. When I was in class 4, I read my first Enid Blyton. It was the Mystery of the Burnt Cottage. Then I remember reading different series, the Five Find Outers and Buster the Dog, the Magic Faraway Tree, the Famous Five, Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, one series where there was Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, the Secret Seven, the Three Investigators, Archie comics,  Kiss and Photoromance and Darling series of romance books. I was a member of three different libraries and finished the kids' section in all three turn by turn, completely.

This went on till I was in class 8. Then I didn't have access to good libraries. There were some Sidney  Sheldons, some Graham Greenes that I tried at the age of 12 and hated. I remember The Sands of Time by Sidney Sheldon at age 12, which left a nasty mark on me. It was too adult, too filled with cynicism and depravity for a young child.

I then luckily found books like 'The old fashioned girl' by Louisa May Alcott, Little Women by the same author, and Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell.

I discovered P.G. Wodehouse in Class 9. I read all the escapades of Wooster and how Jeeves saves the day right through class 9.  I remember my friends giving me 'Indiscretions of Archie' by Wodehouse as a birthday gift since books were difficult to procure in the village where I lived at the time. I was thrilled.

Then, around Class 11, I read Sidney Sheldons, Jeffrey Archers, John Grishams, Michael Chrichtons, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which was a gift from a  friend.My first John Grisham was also a gift from the same friend.

After school, I stopped reading for a while, and became more of a movie buff. I started liking chick litt better and stopped reading crime and detective fiction.

I read a bit of Erma Bombeck but it was so-so.

I did try reading Sue Grafton's series on recommendation from my maternal uncle, and found it easy reading. I also read Jim Butcher on his recommendation and enjoyed it.

In my Post Graduate course, my friend asked me what she should get me for my birthday and I said John Gray's 'Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus'.

After I finished my PG in Communications, I enrolled in another Masters program just for fun(not for the degree) in English literature. I read a lot of American literature and Indian literature, which was on the syllabus like A streetcar named desire, Emma, Robinson Crusoe, Surfacing by Atwood, Naga Mandala by Girish Karnad, Middlemarch by George Eliot, The colour purple by Alice Walker and many others.

Finally, my paternal uncle who was a professor of English himself asked me why I was doing a degree if it wasn't for the actual degree. He said I could always choose the books I wanted and read them. I saw the sense in what he said since I didn't like some of the books like Jude the Obscure and Bleak house and I realised that there's always SparkNotes.

I did not enjoy Stephen King, but liked his book 'On Writing' which I got as a present from my colleagues. They asked me what I wanted and I chose this book.

I LOVED the Harry Potter series. I also loved Dan Brown. I read Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone and liked it. I didn't like his subsequent books but liked his recent book 'One Indian Girl'. I found Murakami strange but I was unable to put it down. It kept me hooked and made me experience things that I'm not sure I want to go through too often.  I'm talking about The Wind -up bird chronicle by Murakami. I also read his Norwegian wood, which was quite depressing and his 'What I talk about when I talk about running', which made me want to run, but I never did get to running.

I loved Rick Riordan and The Wimpy Kid series for kids.

I also liked The Bartemeous Trilogy. I loved Candace Bushnell and Megan Crane, which qualifies as chick litt. I've read a zillion other books in between, some of which i "tried to read" because it was a "must read" but that actually put me off reading for a while!Now I'm going back to my childhood ways. I'm going to read only for pleasure.