Meme - Mia (Sab iin shaab ji ki den hai)

The Book Meme:

Total Number of Books I Own:
Twenty at the most. Have always been more of a borrower; friends and libraries.

Last book I bought:
Were gifts to a friend.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman.

Last Book I Read:
Fidgety by nature, I do not always indulge in single tasking when it comes to reading. Presently lingering on Paulo Coelho's The Devil and Miss Prym, interspersed with Coelho's Veronica Decides To Die and the Outlook Traveller May edition.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me:

1)The usual childhood suspects
Enid Blyton series - The Famous Five, the Five Find Outers, Barney and Mischief, The Magic Faraway Tree one being the most favorite
Alfred Hitchcock - The Three Investigators
Williard Price - Hal and Roger adventures

2)A children's book I read when I was about seven, the title of which has become prey to amnesia. It is the story of a shapeless green blob (of some matter) that lives in a pond and that befriends a small child. In the end, the blob dies or melts (something of that sort) and the girl is greatly distressed at having lost a friend. I cried too, along with her.

3)Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Not having spent my schooling years in India, I had the opportunity to study English in a slightly different manner than is the norm here. Tom Sawyer was recommended for Literature studies in class eight. Each line, each paragraph, each situation would be discussed in great detail and the study would ask for expansive, analytical notes to be written thereon.

4)Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden
A gift from a friend. Sad but beautiful in its own way, the story is presented in a very poetic manner; replete with metaphors and allegories.

5)Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
A delightful, light-hearted tale about a family that decides to cut down on Christmas festivities expenses by skipping the celebrations altogether.
Warms the cockles of one's heart.

6)Mrityunjaya by Shivaji Sawant
A book of gigantic proportions, more so to one who cannot rapidly skim through Devanagari scripts. Karna's tale is narrated in this one, he of the Mahabharat fame.

Memory is indeed playing hide-n-seek while I write this meme. There must have been many special books, especially those I read as a child, for then is the time when one is more accepting and appreciative of ideas and less critical or biased towards the views presented.

Current Music : Bawra Mann - Hazaaron Kwahishen Aise
(Also check out the title track based on Ghalib's poem -
Hazaaron khwahishen aisi ki har khwahish pe dum nikle,
Bahut nikle mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle)