The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: I’ve tried, in the past, to stay away from books that were dark and depressing. As an adult, I’ve been a voracious reader mostly at the times I’ve felt dark and depressed and hence have gravitated more towards books that are funny and light-hearted and wouldn’t want to make me lunge in front of the next incoming train. Now I’m at a very good point in my life and thought I could handle this. Good thing I waited because this book is a really intense read. I love the style– there’s no shock and awe here, simply telling of the story, which I appreciated.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi:  This book is a literature lover’s dream. It’s about a literature professor and seven of her students who get together each week to discuss some of the classics. The book is a memoir and its brilliance is in weaving together the politics of Iran, the literature of a century ago, and the loves and lives of these eight women in revolutionary Iran and during the Iran-Iraq war, each with her unique story to tell. I’m not usually such a fan of non-fiction, but this one is so beautifully and charmingly written, that I couldn’t help but fall in love with it. Reading Lolita in Tehran is not an easy book to read by any means. Stories of brutality, of lashes and beatings, of the little joys not allowed these men and women are going to keep you up at night. But because the book focuses mostly on literature, you’re reminded repeatedly of how lucky you are to have access to book groups, to books themselves, instead of being under a regime where your well-worn copy of The Great Gatsby could be confiscated and bring you punishment.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: Madame Bovary had been my middle-of-the-night reading (on the phone) but it’s a long book, and I think may be better suited to paper or Kindle (which I currently don’t own). I kept falling asleep with the phone in my hands with no idea where I was in the book. So after having read a single page almost a dozen times with still no idea of where I was in the story, I decided to give up on that and go for something easier. So children’s literature it is. Didn’t forget once where I was in any of these three books. (And while I’ve seen the movies, heard several different audio and radio versions, I’d actually never read any of these books. I didn’t even realize that some of the dialogue I’ve been quoting hasn’t been from the books or the movies, but some audio version I heard repeatedly as a child!) Also, I do realize there are about 15 more books in the series, but I think I might have to save those for nieces, nephews and future children.

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria: Another one of my late-night listens and I’m a bit stuck on what to say about it. I like Zakaria and as with anyone else who doesn’t live under a rock, can’t escape his work (in Time) or his appearances on television. His observations are pretty spot-on, but as I’m prone to do, found myself disagreeing with some of what he had to say: the fact that innovation and ideas would set America apart from the rest of the world, which is unlikely because the rest of the world is getting educated and moving quickly beyond manufacturing and call centers into the idea business as well. That’s the goal, not just for America but for the whole rest-of-the-world. So Zakaria the doctor has found the ailment, but I’m not sure his cure works. And this is where I get into murky and idealistic territory– does there have to be a cure? Isn’t a global environment where each individual, regardless of the country he or she belongs to, can move ahead because of his or her ideas and talent, the ultimate goal? But I suspect the book wouldn’t have become a bestseller in the US if Zakaria had said, “America isn’t better than the rest of the world, we’re all equal,” so fair play to him. Good book, though, and definitely worth a read if you want to understand the new global order a bit better.

A Writer’s Paris by Eric Maisel: I bought this in 2006, having saved money to go to Paris and live there for a while. For reasons too elaborate to get into here and not related to writing, I didn’t and the book got relegated into a corner cupboard, inciting bad memories each time I saw it. But the other day I was talking to a writer friend and complaining about the prevalence of spiritual writing gurus who talk in monotone and go on and on about how they sat down and found peace with themselves (“and then the writing just poured out of me,” etc) and she suggested that I look up Eric Maisel. “The atheist version of the creativity author” she said. So I took this now-dusty book out of my cupboard and fell in love with it. This is a writer after my own heart. He touched upon several of the issues I’ve touched upon on this blog recently (he wrote a book in three weeks after being inspired by George Simenon, who I mentioned recently) and finds it difficult when agents and publishers talk only about how to sell books and not how to write authentic books) and wants to live and learn and be prolific and write and dream and sit in park and write, write, write. I absolutely loved this book and even though I’m not heading to Paris any time soon (although I might be tempted to embark on a literary sojourn in Delhi), the city is only a backdrop in all Maisel has to say. While it’s an important part of the book and he helps you get over all the excuses you have to not go, the real meat of the book is what’s underneath it all: the art (and really, we’re talking art here not craft) of writing and being a writer. I loved the book and will definitely be revisiting it again. And I’ll definitely be reading many of his thirty (or more) other books as well. I think I’m going to read A Writer’s San Francisco next. And throw in a request for A Writer’s Delhi.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explore the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner: I bought this book because I heard about the Freakonomics movie, and I wanted to be sure I’d read the book before I accidentally saw the movie (though how I’d “accidentally” see the movie, I don’t quite know.) Books like these are typically hard for me to get through because they can sometimes be quite information-heavy. You plough through them somehow because you want to be informed and updated on what’s going on in the world, but you don’t typically enjoy them. This book was different. I quite enjoyed reading it, actually, and learned so much of what I hadn’t already known. I have a file on my computer called “Random Facts,” in which I’ll record things I’ve read somewhere or heard about that are interesting and could come in handy for a future article or book and there were several things from Freakonomics that made it into that file. I especially loved the story of the man in the US named one of his kids Winner and the other Loser. Not the man himself, clearly, but the story. Loser, you’d be happy to hear went on to become quite successful, and Winner… well, read the book!

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby: I never thought I’d say this about a Nick Hornby book (because I’m a huge fan of his fiction), or indeed, about a book about books, but I didn’t really like this one. I typically need an “easy” book after I’ve read something intense, so this was one I was really looking forward to after a whole slew of books on difficult subjects (Iranian revolution, Bhopal gas tragedy, etc). It’s good enough, but it does not have a laugh on every page as the cover blurb promises, which is quite disappointing. I actually love reading about other people’s reading habits, tastes, and current choices, but this one, unfortunately, didn’t do it for me. I wish I had a better reason than that I didn’t connect with the voice, but that was the biggest issue for me. It seemed like I was being forced to find the reading list interesting for no other reason than that it was Hornby’s list.