“With a book, you’re never alone”, they say. If reading is a habit you’ll like to cultivate, there are some practical ways to approach it, especially if you always find yourself drifting from your reading goals. However, it’s important to first have a deep willingness to read and grow in the process. Approach reading as a fun, this absolutely is the basic premise of our pet campaign ‘Love thy books’, with #MindChow.
We at MindChow have this topic closest to our hearts. We felt everyone must read in his or her lifetime, and this concern intrigued us. Every year, most people set goals for themselves to read a certain number of books. But, just like most New Year resolutions, they become like every other unaccomplished word, but since we all are spending more time at home, we thought we could inspire few souls atleast towards reading.
Should the Bible or a Ramayana be on the list? No text has influenced Western or Indian culture more, but might it be equally important to read the Secret or Ramayana vs Mahabharat for a more enlightened and contemporary worldview? Books are Bae, Books of Instagram, the Bookholics and more alike have trended like never before.
Then we thought, how could we whittle down our list to just 10 books? As it turned out, we couldn’t. We posed the question to our fellow book-savvy friends and peers and, after receiving some fair amount of recommendations we ultimately settled on 25 titles.
Instead of worrying so much about what had to be included, we opted to present a collection of books that has the ability to change the way you think and feel and reflects on diverse interests. We hope you enjoy our suggestions. Presenting to you the campaign closest to our hearts #lovethybooks from us to you all.
1) JERUSALEM…By Simon Sebag Montefiore
While the book narrates the entire history of the city of Jerusalem from ancient to modern times. It’s the only city to exist in heaven as well as earth. As per old reference books, religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism, want to claim it as their birthplace. Wars are being fought for Jerusalem even to this date. The book is comprehensive, truthful and intriguing all at the same time. Must read if topics like ancient history is your forte.
(Book recommendation by Dr. Kedar Katkar, Dentist by profession, a voracious reader by heart)
2) Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found…Suketu Mehta
The book made a very interesting read, with three sections: ‘Power’ (Politics & the Underworld), ‘Pleasure’ (Dance bars, Red Light Areas and Bollywood) and finally ‘Passages’ (meant to show the nature of Mumbai as a pass-through city, as a non-destination – illustrated by Slums, Migrants, Religious Renouncers, etc). One can relate to a lot of instances in the book, like struggling to find a Gas cylinder connection, or Kids admission, to cable guys catering to special needs of their customers, to an insight in to Bollywood and the lives of Bar girls.
The book is a thought-provoking read but you sometimes end up questioning the author as to why he had to showcase so much negativity which Mumbai does not deserve. But for a person like me who is interested in the life of city of Mumbai, it is an excellent option to read.
(Book recomendation by Amod Desai, Communications Professional and an avid reader by passion besides food)
3) The Kite Runner…Khaled Hosseini
“There is a way to be good again…” somewhere we all can relate to in some ways. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni is a story about friendship, loyalty, cruelty, longing for acceptance, redemption, survival and class differences. The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal.
“The Kite Runner” is a story that will make you feel as if everything you have, everything that you take for granted is a treat. For many people in different parts of the world, these are dreams. And actually it is. The book well undeniably will keep you on the verge of every surpassing blended emotions passing as you go on observing and interpreting characters and their journey. It will make you cry, then it will make you smile, it will make you content and then it would make you cry a little more.
Amir, who grows up in Afghanistan during the 1970s and ’80s, and eventually moves to the San Francisco. Was Amir’s life journey that simple? Nope. Many readers must have cursed and resented Amir. Nevertheless I pity him as he was a 12 year old young boy constantly striving for the appreciation and love from his Baba. Amir wins the local kite-fighting tournament with the help of Hasan—a popular Afghan pastime and Amir is able to achieve his ultimate goal his father’s love. But the victory of the tournament came with a high price which haunted Amir for the rest of his life. What happened after the competition changed the course of their lives, lifelong friendship and had shaken the foundation of their trust, as they tried to deal with the repercussions of a single day.
The best bit about “The Kite Runner is its sense of fate and justice, of good overcoming evil in the end, despite all odds.
(Book recommendation by Adv. Madhura Bane Kamble. A lawyer by profession but books are love for this soul)
4) How to be a BAWSE…Lilly Singh
In this book, Lilly discusses how to be a BAWSE; (BAWSE – a person who exudes confidence, reaches goals, gets hurt efficiently, and smiles genuinely because they’ve fought through it all and made it out the other side) a strong confident person who takes charge of their life while at the same time genuinely being a good human. There’s nothing complicated about this read.
Anybody can just pick it up and read it if he or she wants to do something with his/her life. There so many self-help books, autobiographies, and Celebrities memoirs that are available out there, but this book is just not about her life.
It’s more of learning a lesson. While reading this book with each and every chapter you will relate to it. The best part about this book is you don’t need to read this according to the index you can pick any chapter. I also liked at the end of each chapter, how this book has a little interactive part where Lilly gives the reader a challenge to complete that acts as a small push in the direction of self-improvement. Cheers to lily Singh. She’s truly a bawse.
(Book recomendation by Anjali Hegde, for whom love for PR and Books goes hand in hand)
5) To Kill A Mockingbird…Harper Lee
To all the book lovers and avid readers who used to find some time between their office commute, just before bed, or weekends to finish their favourite book or pick up a new one from the stores, this pandemic has brought some free time, some ‘me’ time to visit their bookshelves and pick up that one classic literature that has been lying there since the start of the time.
While my mother pushed me to take up house chores this lockdown, I stumbled upon one such book which was hiding away catching dust on my top shelf – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Lee wrote this book in the 1960s, but the story is set back in 30s just when the Great Depression had hit the world much like our current state. In a small town of Maycomb in Alabama the southern state, Scout Finch narrates the story of her childhood and the experiences she had with it.
I got hooked onto it, and realised, that Scout and I are sitting almost a century apart; the times have changed, but have they? Scout Finch addresses the topics of a pandemic; the times when people were treated or judged on the basis of their colour, class or creed; people’s interest in their neighbours’ lives. A town painted in the irrationality of their attitudes, a conscience steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy, and the struggle of one man who holds the weight of the struggle of this town.
“Kill all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”
One of my favourite quotes from the book, and my loosely interpret learning from it – “A human being can evolve as a man, but it’s very difficult for a man to evolve as a human being.”
(Book recomendation by Tejas Tawde, Media Professional but you will always find him with books even on a vacation)
Disclaimer: MindChow is a personal, institutional blog. MindChow facilitates musings or thoughts meant for purely pondering purpose. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.
