“red and yellow” by devi laskar

When I was a kid, there were stories that I never tired of hearing or reading. One of my earliest memories starts with the sound of my paternal grandmother’s voice retelling the Mahabharata, and the exiled Pandavas living in a house made entirely of wax. One of the first stories I remember reading are the TinTin series, and Enid Blyton’s “Famous Five” novels.

What made them compelling stories and made them similarly exciting – Plot! Characters! Twists and turns! Surprise! These books were all page-turners, and after my grandmother would tell me the stories from the Mahabharata, I’d beg her to tell me, again. When I got older, I read the versions translated from the Sanskrit and I was pretty much hooked to be a lifelong reader, and a writer, from that moment.

Over the years my tastes have changed, but I still have my favorite books that I go to, re-read, to get that feeling, no matter that I already know the outcome. It’s not just admiration that makes me re-read these books, it’s that I learn something new every time I read the books again.

Recently, I’ve read several books for the first time, and I recommend that you try them for yourselves: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, and Enchantment by Thaisa Frank.

Here’s a partial list of my favorites, the ones that follow me wherever I go:

1. The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
2. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
3. The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
4. The God of Small Things, by Arundhuti Roy
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Wintering, by Kate Moses
7. The Year of Fog, by Michelle Richmond

What’s on your  “go to” list? And what are you reading these days, for the first time?