Book Tag: A Q&A about my reading life

On June 17, my blog friend Tracy did a Book Tag post on her popular blog Bitter Tea and Mystery, answering a series of trivia questions about books and reading. She, in turn, had been inspired by similar book tags on other blogs. I found her version particularly enjoyable, not least because of the sheer variety of books she has read—and continues to read and review—across several genres.

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No reader ever reaches the end of the journey. I still have countless authors to discover, shelves of books waiting to be read, and many years, I hope, before I can look back with any sense of satisfaction. So I'm going to answer these questions honestly. Is there any other way? To adapt a famous line from Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 novel Mother Night—“We are what we read, so we must be careful about what we pretend to read and the books we pretend to talk about.”

Let’s see how it goes.

What book has been on your shelf the longest?

My paternal grandfather's 1965 Tudor edition of Shakespeare: Complete Works (The English Library). I'm saving it for retirement, though I suspect the Bard will have plenty of company by then. Every other year I tell myself I'll finally settle down and read Shakespeare properly. Instead, I end up dusting the cover, the spine and the yellowing pages before placing it carefully back in the cabinet.

What is your current read, last read, and the book you plan to read next?

Current Read: The Midden by British satirical novelist Tom Sharpe (one of my favourite writers) and Shall We Tell the President?, an alternative fiction by Jeffrey Archer, one of several bestselling authors I read in college. I enjoy Sharpe's irreverent wit and outrageous humour. Archer, on the other hand, is an old hand at storytelling. Remember Kane and Abel?

Last Read: Past Tense, where prolific writer-blogger Margot Kinger introduced me to her affable sleuth Joel Williams, a former policeman turned academician.

Next Read: To be honest, I have no idea. My next book is usually a random choice, though I'm tempted to pick up a P.G. Wodehouse or an Agatha Christie from my wife’s collection. It's been a while since I last read either. Wodehouse still has me in splits, even if his humour occasionally follows familiar patterns.

What book do you tell yourself you’ll read, but probably won't?

I'm going to answer this one a little differently.

I struggled through the first 30-odd pages of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and nearly gave up. I had little idea what was happening. It remains one of the most challenging books I have attempted in recent years. At times it almost felt as though Faulkner himself was saying, "My narrative style isn't for you. Read something else." I wasn't amused.

What book are you saving for retirement?

Well, as I said, Shakespeare will probably have distinguished company: Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, Solzhenitsyn, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche (which I never finished), and a few other classics. Of course, much will depend on my eyesight and state of mind.

Which book character would you switch places with?
 
James Green, better known as Sudden, the Texas outlaw. I've admired the character ever since my paternal uncle introduced me to the eponymous western series when I was 14.

Created by British writer Oliver Strange, Sudden is my favourite Western hero. He earns both his nickname and his notoriety because of his lightning-fast draw, and is branded an outlaw for crimes he never committed. In reality, Green is a gentleman with a gun, defending ordinary folk against crooked gamblers, ranchers, rustlers and land-grabbers, even as he quietly hunts down the two men who killed the man who raised him. Sudden also has a badge—and a secret identity: Deputy Marshal of the United States, reporting directly to the Governor of Arizona.

While Strange, who never once travelled to America, wrote ten Sudden novels, fellow English writer Frederick H. Christian (better known as Frederick Nolan) added another five after Strange's death. You can hardly tell the difference. This remains the only series, in any genre, that I have read more than once.

What book reminds you of a specific place, time or person?

I'm usually so engrossed in a book that I rarely relate its plot, setting or characters to real places or people. It simply doesn't occur to me.

Which book has been with you most places?

Quite a few spiritual books, but mostly Love Never Faileth by the late Indian spiritual teacher and author Eknath Easwaran, who founded the nonprofit Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in California in 1961. This, and most of Easwaran's forty books, offers a practical guide to leading a more fulfilling life through his simple eight-point programme of passage meditation. You can open almost any page and think, "Hey, this is exactly what I needed."

Which book have you reread the most?

The books I have reread most often are philosophical and spiritual, particularly those by Easwaran and other mystics, including my own spiritual preceptor. They have been my comfort zone—my mental prop—for more than three decades.

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What book outside your comfort zone did you end up loving?

Not one, but two: The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. I read these powerful classics more than a decade ago on my wife's recommendation. Until then, I had never read an unabridged classic, apart from the abridged versions we encountered in school.

What are your three bookish confessions?
 
1. I collect books. I still own several unread books that I bought in the 1980s and 1990s. Having said that, I have been exercising some restraint. So far this year, I have bought just three books.

2. I will happily miss a bus, train or autorickshaw if I spot secondhand books for sale, even if I end up buying nothing and reaching home late.

3. I never lend books I treasure, such as my Corgi editions of the Sudden novels and my comic-books.

Do you prefer used or brand new books?
 
There is a certain charm about secondhand books, which make up most of my modest collection. This includes over two dozen secondhand—but mint-condition—paperbacks of Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: The Executioner. As for new books, I now buy more Kindle editions than paperbacks.

Have you ever seen a movie you liked more than the book?

Perhaps not more than the books themselves, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film adaptations of Jack Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed and A Prayer for the Dying, and Alistair MacLean's The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Ice Station Zebra. I also liked the screen versions of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night, and, of course, the Harry Potter films.

Last page: read it first, or wait till the end? 

I've never read the last page first—not even to finish a book sooner—although I was tempted while reading Irving Wallace’s The Second Lady. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know why.

Name a book that you acquired in an interesting way.

DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes (Bulfinch, October 1995).

Many years ago, I found this collector's edition at a new bookstore for Rs 450 ($9). I wanted it badly. But wisdom prevailed, and I walked away, convincing myself the money could be put to better use—perhaps on groceries and things like that.

A few days later, while on my way to the office in another part of town, I spotted the very same book at a roadside bookseller. It was in mint condition and priced at just Rs 125 ($2.5). I bought it without a second thought.

Final two questions, my own.

Which authors you wish you had read by now?

Most Indian authors. There is such richness and variety in Indian writing in English that I often wonder why I have neglected it for so long. In hindsight, the focus of my blog should probably have been more desi than Western. I hope to make up for that by reading—and reviewing—more Indian fiction in the years ahead.

If you didn’t read books, what would you be doing?

Probably painting or learning to play a musical instrument. I think it's important to have non-work pursuits among the arts and crafts. Much of everything else is so ordinary.

Bottom line: If these answers reveal anything, I hope it's not how many books I have—or haven't—read, but the kind of reader I am. There are still countless books waiting for me, and that's part of the pleasure. Reading isn't a race. The important thing is simply to keep reading, even if it's one book at a time.

Other notable Book Tag posts
 
Nancy Elin 

Brona's Books

On Bookes

Howling Frog Books