The best thing about books is the liberty they give u to go wild with ur imagination.That ways, I find movies very limiting.Be it taking you new places or telling you more about people, a book can really open our mind.
With so many good books, Rating five books as all time good ones is just not going to be easy. I am just going to take fictions for ratings and deal with non-fictions seperately(dont cry foul MS team;)!)
I feel that ultimately a good book is something which’ll appeal to you irrespective of the genre it belongs to, thriller, mystery, romance.and is able to move you or just plain sit alone after finishing it and make you think.that’s the only criterion I have applied in these ratings.
So here goes my list!
No5: To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee:
An amazing story told from the eyes of a small girl. there is her and her brother, living with their dad, who is on a mission to save a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman.There is this sense of right and wrong in every one of our minds and this book just reaffirms it. The complexity of adult life and interactions told so vividly. kind of a slap to racial discrimination. Its a pity that harper lee wrote just one book!
No4: Tell me your dreams by Sidney Sheldon:
Sidney Sheldon might not be considered as a literary authority, but what is more important is the consistently with which he has written, popular novels, rather than plain critically acclaimed books’s rarely purchased by anyone! Tell me your dreams, as we all know, takes us through the life(or lives?) of a woman suffering from a multiple personality disorder, a truly unputdownable book, the chill u get in ur spine when u realise that the three women are the same is just inexplicable in words.just grab one and read is all I can say!(Though I have revealed the mystery already!)
No3: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer:
I personally feel that Jeffrey Archer is truely a master story teller.but if I were to pick just one, I would choose Kane and abel, The two powerful men, their ego, their resilience to succeed, to fight against odds and come out winners all told so captivatingly. The typical archer style of showing absolute money making acumen in his characters is present in this one too(I think he shud be teaching strategy in B-schools wotsay?) and yes, there is this nice twist towards the end, making it a never to miss.
No 2: Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell:
Am extreemely biased with this one.I think Rhett butler is the most intense hero portrayed ever! He and Scarlett o Hara are certainly amongst the immortal characters in literature.what makes the book a classic is not just the relationship that’s told in the story.its about the history that is interwoven in it, it makes You feel as if you were part of the age of the south and north, the wars and and what not in US history! An all time classic!
No 1: Doctors by Erich segal:
There is friendship, There is love, There is genuine warmth, There is ambition, There is in fact everything that
makes life what it is in this one book.I feel that the strength of segal is his rich portrayal of people, who are good at heart(always) and bound by situations, like u and me and everyone else.this love story of laura and barnie is especially so, because it shows beautifully of a frdshiop that slowly blossoms into love(or was it always love?), all in a professional backdrop.
All other novels of Segal right from’Love story’, to’Man woman and the child’ to Acts of faith are excellent. In fact, any of them would qualify for the top slot.
Guess I have missed out some good authors like John Grisham, Danielle steel, Arundhathi roy(just one but still good), Arthur hailey, Robin Cook and a whole lot of others.
Yeah as for Non-fiction, I wudnt go as elobarately.they are not in any order.
1.Who moved my cheese by Spencer Johnson(You will welcome change with both hands after reading this one!)
2.Illusions by Richard Bach( people might say seagull is his best, but I find this more thought provoking)
3.India unbound by Gurcharan Das: some kind of a biography of the author as well as India. must read for all Indians.
4.My experiments with truth By M.K. Gandhi( Do I have to say anything about this one?)
5.7 Habits of highly effective people by Stephan covey.( Am still reading this one, but can sense that it is going to change the way I am in a big way!)
Hope you all find my list kinda agreeable atleast.and ofcourse happy reading to all of you!