Favorite Books, Novels

I have always been an avid reader. Reading books, novels were my favorite past time. I could sit for hours reading a novel unmindful of what is going on around me.

I remember that whenever I was taken to Landmark (bookstore in Chennai), with my parents or with A (who was like a little brother to me) and his family, I would often pick a book and go to a corner and start reading it. There were times when I would actually finish reading a short story while the others did the shopping.

Another childhood memory that I have is - of me quietly going to A’s study room (that had an old cupboard filled with books and novels), picking up a book from the collection and reading it. Iam pretty sure I had read all of them.

Here is the crazy list of books and novels that I had read and enjoyed so far (this is not the complete list. I might have missed many of them...) -

Enid Blyton books - No introductions needed for her J

a.) Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys – I had read 4-5 books from each of the series when I was young. Two years back, I discovered an online portal that had the complete series. Went ahead and read all the books in the series back to back. The irony was that after a few books, I was able to fairly deduce the plot of the other books.

b.) Famous Five, Secret Seven, Malory Towers, St.Clare series – read a few of them when I was in school. I had one or two of these that were gifted to me. The rest were all borrowed.

c.) Noddy – I enjoyed reading all the books of Noddy and his life in Toyland. Had quite a good collection of the Noddy books. Big Ears was a favorite of mine. I have watched the cartoon shows that were based on these books as well.

                                                                         

Archie comic books -

Set in a fictional town of Riverdale, Archie comics were stuff that I used to read for entertainment. Very light and funny.

Adventures of Tintin -

I still remember the times when I would be in awe reading the Tintin books. Loved all the characters in the book even Snowy. I still have two to three Tintin books in my cupboard. I have not read all the books in the series. I have always wanted to buy the entire set.

Tinkle - Iam a proud owner of most of these books. They are simple stories and I loved reading them. My most favorite character was Suppandi

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Amar Chitra Katha books - They were simple stories that were easy to read. I used to like Chacha Chaudhary stories. I must admit, I did gain a little knowledge of Indian mythology from these books.

Fairy tales – I guess I ended up in reading most of the fairy tale books when I was a kid. Apart from the collection I had, A did have a very good collection. In fact, I still remember he had a big fat blue book that had so many stories.

MISHA Magazine - I do not remember the details, but all I know is that a family friend had gone and paid for a yearly subscription of MISHA (Russian Children Magazine) as a birthday gift for me and A. I think it was a monthly subscription. I absolutely loved the magazine as a kid.

 

Sherlock Holmes series - Although I had read only a few stories of this detective series when I was young, I got hold of the entire series a few years back and read all of them. I really loved the style of Arthur Conan Doyle's writing and was amazed at how he created those mysteries and how Holmes solves them. My passion for observing people and paying attention to every small detail probably was a result of reading Sherlock Holmes stories J

More in the next post..