what do you read?

I recently spent a loooong time on an email interview,
recalling about the books i read, and had a great time reconnecting with my literary past,
and feeling a tad ashamed about my not-so-literary present.

I was from the Humanities scheme, and in fact I was a Literature and History student!
Shakespeare, Chaucer, poetry, practical criticism was really my thing.
Honestly I was an emotional romantic in my younger years, I do think my idealism has faded in some ways.
That is another story.

I later received a call that due to some scheduling complications the interview was not to be published.

oh well.

i would love to share it with you anyways :)

 What sort of books she enjoys reading - would be great to find out her favourite genres and authors

Chuck Palahniuk, and as he puts it, transgressional fiction. His crisp and terse writing style, and anti-establishment, avant-garde themes are refreshing to me. I was pretty much hooked since Fight Club and have read all his books since.

Roald Dahl is one of my favourite authors, everyone remembers Matilda, The Witches, and the BFG. I read all of Roald Dahl's books as a kid, and even stumbled upon my first adult book by accident because I read My Uncle Oswald, which was also written by him. His short stories are excellent, in fact always laced with black humour, and definitely not for children.

 What books she is reading now, with titles, author names and a bit about each book

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
This is a great book for all artistes who create for a living - when the Muse fails to appear when a deadline is due, here's a guide to how we can catch it by its tail and tame it to work for us. In short, it teaches us to work regularly and consistently and not wait for  a sporadic moment of  "inspiration".

Jennifer Egan's Black Box featured on The New Yorker was one of the more outstanding and memorable pieces of fiction I stumbled upon. She's serialized the narrative on Twitter through the New Yorker's fiction account, you can read some here https://dev.twitter.com/media/twitter-moments/authors/jennifer-egan-black-box

Whether a book has changed her life or affected her very deeply. If yes, what was the title and why did it leave such a deep impact?

The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera. This was one of the most mind blowing books I read when I was in my teens, and like most others, going through a teenage identity crisis.  It questioned the purpose and meaning of life, and one's interpretation of living. I read it with such trepidation that I eventually never finished the book. Having said that, I think I should revisit it now and see what it was that shook me so much.

What book she would save from a burning house

I have the first version of the English translation of The Little Prince. I read this version first from the school library and loved it. This is the version by Katherine Woods. When I bought the book finally, I was surprised to find that I had bought a different version, translated by Irene Testot-Ferry. It could be nostalgia, but I loved the first version for its somewhat awkward English and almost innocent, child like use of the language. The second version seemed too polished for my taste.



I recently just finished reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Haha!
Aside from the sadomasochism, I honestly think Grey is every woman's fantasy.
Hot, gorgeous, rich, skilled at *ahem*, romantic, helplessly attracted, flirtatious, domineering, caring, bad boy turns good because of that one true love.
Daymmmnn.