Books to read, before world comes to an end

You never know, after corona I have realised that life has no guarantee. You might pick a bad book and waste days and months trying to finish it. I have picked up classics, motivational, famous authors, and non fiction thru friend recommendations. Some times I have been lucky but at times I didn’t know why I was even trying. It’s probably a thing about personal failure. So I push myself.

But if world is coming to an end, then other than being with family, friends, traveling - I might like to read. After all what else is in life. Probably sing and dance too and some may watch movies or drink alcohol.

Anyways if you like books, then read these ones and then you can die peacefully. 

1. Kingdom’s end: Manto short stories are brilliant. I love short stories but no one writes better than Manto. The proof are the lines he composed for his own epitaph - 

2. 100 years of solitude - Marquez the epitome of generation storytelling of a life comes around a circle and the destiny unfolds over generations 

3. Pachinko - This Korean- Japanese immigrant saga of a mother love and hurt, the gambling world of Pachinko and the life that needs to be endured. 

4. The wind up bird chronicle - no one writes surreal like Murakami. He can take you to a world which exists somewhere in your own subconscious and you only find it when you search inside

5. Choker Bali - Ravindranath Tagore is considered an intellectual  property, but understanding complexity of a woman and presenting to you the way they are, is his speciality other than a lot of intellectual gaff

6. Persepolis - Graphic fiction is my favorite you see and coupled with a tale of growing up in the backdrop of changing Iran reeks of nostalgia and a past better than present 

7. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Another gem from the same country, is the love for literature especially books about women, their identity and sexuality. You can’t get a better book to merge the world of literature and reality, and making you believe that truth is stranger than fiction 

8. Half of a yellow sun - Two sisters and their lives against the backdrop of Nigeria during the civil war crisis. It’s heartening to see the strength and vulnerability of human relationships thru a nation in turmoil. I also saw the movie version which is brilliant too. 

9. Wuthering heights- One of the earliest books I read, as a book recommendation for holiday homework by my English teacher Mrs Vatsala Kaul. She was a cool woman and the stereotype brilliant English literature teacher. Well read and fluent speaker, she really opened our eyes to the wonders of literature - and Wuthering Heights does the same, along with opening a teenage mind to intense love story and unfilled hearts desires. 

10. Suraj ka Satvan Ghoda - I really love this one but it’s only available in Hindi or you can watch the Shyam Benegal’s  movie version. It’s about economic impact on love and relationships, told thru three parallel stories of three different women from different background but entangled lives. 

So here are my 10 and don’t worry, I will keep extending this list with the extension of quarantine and world extinction.