Tomorrow is World Book Day. There are so many celebrated, campaigning and/or awareness raising “days” that I have lost count over the years. But this one is productive in that it encourages reading and enjoying literature – opens up a whole new world for one to explore.
When I was in my teens, as part of the numerous English assignments we had to complete, one was a 2000 word book review – known as the Review of Personal Reading. How I loathed it. The thought of completing a 2000 word essay when I was 16 was horrendous. Now it seems to be nothing compared to the word count of my academic essays, research reports and dissertation projects!
For this RPR assignment, the book I chose was Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger which I absolutely adored. I won’t say it was or is my favourite novel, since my list of favourites is far too long, but I did enjoy it. I did not completely relate to the teenage character Holden since I was not half as angry at the world as he was, but now in my adult years I find myself thinking about it and about his anger. It doesn’t seem to be so misplaced or misdirected after all.
Do you have any novels that you would recommend? Is there anything you have read which had an impact on your perception of the world and its people? What did you enjoy reading?
Inner Reflections Transcribed 
Does this mean that tomorrow I can stay home and read book instead of going to my Contracts & Constitutional Law classes?
Randomly picking a book from my bookshelf, I would recommend “The Bastard of Istanbul,” by Elif Shafak. It’s an amazing read that I couldn’t put down, and provides a dynamic view of all the different perspectives present in Turkey today.
Im like you Sumera, in that Catcher In the Rye had a deep impact on me. I could really relate to Holden and still do. As for any other books that had a deep impact on my perception of the world. Nothing comes to mind………except maybe “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinback.
I have way too many books that I love! I’ve aaaaalways loved reading… it started in grade 3, when my teacher aunt would mail me books, and in grade 4 blossomed into something tantamount to obsession – I had literally no friends, so after school, every day, would sit in my room and devour books that I’d borrowed or bought.
I think my book collection reached 200+ at one point, but then in fits of pique my parents would decide that it was unhealthy for me to ONLY read and would chuck out half my collection. The last time we moved, the books were packed in a box and are apparently shoved in the garage alongside a zillion other boxes… I’m a bit upset about that ‘cuz there were some really great ones – like my entire Anne of Green Gables series – that I really want to read again!
……..ok….well that’s wonderful…i have an excuse not to go to work and to sit home and read….and chickpea…….I love that book also
I really liked the moonlit cage by linda holeman,and The Kite runner..one of my all time favs… also 28 stories of AIDS in africa and no where left to bury the dead,you cant read those two books and have them not affect you…
I absolutely enjoy reading. That’s a fact.
I really loved “Gone with the wind”. I like the character of Scarlett so much.
Abt a book who had an influance on me, i would recomment a collection of 8 books, name as “Good stories for good children”
I can say at the time i read the collection more than 10 times. It had very strong influance on me and my way of thinking. And once i had this chance to meet its old writer.
Everyone was a summery of a famous book like “Kelileh Va demneh”, “Mantiquttayr(Attar)”, Quranic stories, Marzban Nameh, Boostan and Golestan (Sa’adi), Mathnavi (Molana Rumi), Ghaboosnameh, etc.
You can see how many great books were summerized in those books. A wonderful collection indeed..
For those who can read and understand urdu poetry I recommend Zehra Nigahs work. Shes such a beautiful story teller.
A book i picked up from the library today looks good!
Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol.
We celebrated this all week at school last week and tomorrow we have a book fair (of course I’ll purchase something!). I’d recmmend People of the Book, I read it recently and really enjoyed it (can’t remember the author though). This reminds me of my latest post 😀 It’s great knowing there’s so many avid readers out there.
What a lovely coincidence! Catcher In The Rye is the only book I’ve read more times than I can remember and it gets funnier each time. After reading it, back in my teens, I couldn’t stop using the phrase ‘shooting the breeze’ for a whole year!
My favorite part was where a ‘phony’ guy took ‘ten steps backwards’ in order to compose his thoughs breaking ‘all’ of somebodys toes in the process. I still rack my ribs remembering it. I loved it all, every single page, front to back, from his crumby teacher in the beginning to the nuns and his precocious kid sister and mental mum and obnoxious room mates and the phoniness of human beings as a whole.
I love the extraordinary ordinariness of the theme, but it’s the writers style that keeps me coming back. With the exception of Toni Morrison, no other writer has been able to leave me floating around in their world long after I’ve put the book down. Funny enough CITR is the only JD Salinger’s book I’ve ever read.
I only realised it was World Book Day cause I went to a primary school to teach kids oral hygiene, and they were all dressed up as characters from books. It was surreal.
I remember that personal study thing in English Higher… I wanted to do The Bluest Eye, but my teacher wouldn’t let me because it wasn’t well known enough (peasant!), and she wanted me to do Emma. Settled on some Maya Angelou at the end, since she’s kind of the same genre. Toni Morrison is still my favourite author though!
In the Netherlands a book isn’t considered ”real literature” unless it’s really depressing, unpleasant and has a really bad ending.
I didn’t like Catcher in the rye. I really like Jane Austen, Agatha Cristie, Ngao Marsh, and The Lord of the Rings. (the BOOK!)
I have about 2000 books, but I’m more into ‘study’ books; art, anatomy, archealogy, antiques, history, horses, etc.
There are so many fiction books I love and that influenced my life, but they all have one thing in common. A strong central character of noble quality.
That is the heart of the matter 🙂 Now I read mostly Sufi literature 🙂
Ya Haqq!
It is said that by studying a persons bookcollection, you can know his/her character!
Master of the Jinn written by brother Irving is a classic 😉
ahhh love books !