Five favourite books and why.
I must confess this was a pretty hard one because there are a million great books out there that I love and choosing only five has been tricky.
But anyway here goes my five favourite books but in no particular order.
1. The purpose driven life by Rick Warren.
This book literally saved my life. When I was fourteen, I had a pretty turbulent phase often experiencing depressive bouts. Then one holiday, I found this book on my mother's lampstand, read it and found reassurance for my existence. Warren's Christian background (he's an American evangelical Christian pastor) synced well with my faith and I found his book present help in a troublesome time.
2. If Men were Angels by Reed Karaim.
In this absolute page turner, Karaim delves into the murky world of politics and the moral obligation of the Fourth estate. Through the erstwhile obscure, but now public life of Thomas Crane, a US presidential hopeful around whom the book rotates, Karaim humanises even the most cocky amongst us and as the story unfolds, he shows us that man is flawed by default. That humbling realization endears this book to me.
3. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene. This particular book invoked my obsession with Decision making. And that's why I chose to embark on penning a long-form piece on Decision making. But I digress. Anyway my love for this one stems from the fact that I strongly concur with the theme and moral of the story: That man is condemned to consequences. That every day we are faced with decisions to take and the choices we make have long-lasting effects on not only us but even those around us.
4. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger.
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
Tell me a better opening line for a novel. I'll wait. See? You will be hard pressed to find a better one. Stephen King is indeed a literary Sensei, and in all honesty choosing one title from his vast collection was a herculean task. Think Misery. Think Salem's Lot. Think The Shining. The list is endless. King has a way with words and he'll have you read a thousand pages in one sitting without you tiring. He's simply unputdownable. I'm yet to read a King book which doesn't elicit the feeling he sets out to evoke in the reader. As a celebrated horror writer, he'll have you peek under your bed before you turn the lights out lest one of his monsters having emerged from his pages, lurks below waiting for the right moment to strike. Dark Tower is this and much more. It is a magnum opus of sorts. A very long work of art with numerous parts and characters but King so expertly executes the story that you don't realize you're reading a homongous volume.
5. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
If you haven't yet read this one, please do yourself a favour and find it. I don't know if it's just that my reading palate is turning philosophical but lately I find intellectually stimulating books my kind of craving. This one does more than intellectually stimulate the reader but in shedding light on the atrocities the Nazi regime committed, it recounts a story of human resilience and triumph of good over bad through the eyes of a holocaust survivor.
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