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:
- The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
- The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
- The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
- The God of Small Things, by Arundhuti Roy
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
- Wintering, by Kate Moses
- 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?