The Recent Haul

Those who read are well aware of the effect reading books have on them. There are books that have an immediate effect and there are some that bring a gradual and imperceptible change. Then there are books that do not have any effect and these books are to be found almost everywhere. It is rare to come across a book that will change one’s life quite dramatically. I am not saying that it isn’t usual to meet someone whose life has changed after reading some book. It isn’t life that changes but something in their life that changes. Unfortunately I haven’t come across anyone whose life was changed after reading a book. There are books that influence one very deeply and for a lifetime. I haven’t found a single book that had changed my life but there have been books that had a profound effect on some areas of my life. So when I again came across ‘Time Out- 1000 Books to Change Your Life’ I bought hoping to know more about such books and the people whose lives were changed after reading a particular book.

Sometime last year during one my visits to Crossword at Banjara Hills in the City Centre Mall I happened to see ‘1000 Books’ on the shelves. Though I wanted to buy it I was put off by the price. I just flipped through it and put it back secretly hoping no one would buy it. I forgot that book and also what I had read in it until I came across it again sometime last week. I happened to drop in at the ‘Best Book Center’ store at Lakdi Ka Pul when I was in Hyderabad on office work. I grabbed the book the moment I saw it because it was priced at only Rs 195 and was mine for only Rs 180. The book is divided into seven parts or chapters according to the stages of human life- from birth to death. Each chapter is about the books that deal with that particular stage. It is quite an interesting arrangement interspersed with short bits by writers like Hari Kunzru, Jonathan Franzen (Kafkas’s ‘The Trial) and others talking about books that changed their lives. Most of them were writers I haven’t heard about. In Matt Thorne’s short piece on the book that changed his life (Carson McCuller’s ‘Reflections in a Golden Eye) I read that Stephen King is a big fan of McCullers. Stephen King happens to be on author one of whose books influenced my writing.

My writing really got a kick start after I read Stephen King’s On Writing’ about five years ago. Till I read the book I was confused about the direction my writing was taking, if aimlessness can be called a direction. I was looking for something that would make sense about the writing life when I serendipitously found ‘On Writing’ on a fine Sunday morning at Abids. Though I had got it for only twenty rupees I consider it a priceless find. It was the book that inspired me to begin my first novel and also complete writing it. ‘On Writing’ is one book that changed my writing life because it told me that if you have the writing talent then you should do something about it. More about ‘1000 Books to Change Your Life’ in another post I plan to do after I finish reading it.