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1. 1. Have you always loved books? Who, if anyone, in your life has most inspired you to read?

I do not know how to answer this question. As it is present in the West (Europe) or in America, I never had my mother reading me a story every night when I was a child. Moreover, my mother was not a literate. I began reading the books after I began going to the school.

As a small boy I remember having passion for the Comics. I read comics that were published in my language (Tamil). From the moment I began reading the comics I can say that I fell in love with the act of reading. And I have not fallen out of love till today.

It was not anyone special who introduced me to reading comics. It all happened by chance. The second hand comics were lent out from a shop that was situated near our school. I think, that must have been the reason for my citizenship in the country of readers.

2. What was your favourite childhood book?

I think the answer for this question is sufficiently answered in the answer for the first question. The Comics were my passion as a small boy. I specially loved the characters of Modesty and Phantom in the comics.

As a teenager I began liking the crime novels that were published in Tamil. Reading crime novels, in those days in our own household was considered an unethical act. The reader of crime novels was considered a criminal himself. So, I had to read without the knowledge of my own parents. I loved specially the authors like Rajeshkumar, Subha, and Pattukottai Prabhakar. Some of their works were translated into English very recently (The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction).

3. Which books do you remember studying at school? Did you enjoy them?

In school, we were introduced to both Tamil and English literature. English was the second language and I had tough time with it till I reached my college. And so, during my school days I was more interested in Tamil literature than in the English literature.

I loved the Sangam literature in Tamil (Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil) and literature that came after it. A special mention is to be made about Kural. A lovely work which contains 1330 couplets and they are divided into three sections (Righteousness, Wealth and Love). Even as a small boy I had great admiration for the couplets that I studied in the school.

At the end of my school days and a year or two before my college studies I was introduced to Hardy Boys Series of Franklin W. Dixon by a friend. I read almost all the books in the series. I also read Robert Arthur's Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series.

During my college days, I fell in love with the English literature. My love story resembles any other stereotypical love story. I never wanted to do my Bachelors in English literature. My love was for Science (preferably for Chemistry). I was forced to take English literature. Without an interest I began the course and later I fell in love with it.

During my college days, I remember studying number of authors and their works. Among them, I specially loved the following ones: Paradise Lost, Doctor Faustus, almost all the plays that I studied of William Shakespeare, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, Jane Eyre, Far from the Madding Crowd and the poems of Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, etc.

4. Where do you most enjoy reading? Do you need silence to read, or can you read almost anywhere?

I enjoy reading in a quiet place and preferably in my own room. Also in my room I prefer the easy chair near the window or the bed (I love reading lying on bed). I love to read in the open if it is very pleasant and relatively quiet such as terraces, gardens and the parks. There is a special pleasure in reading a book in a lovely park among the observant trees and the non observant frolicking wild creatures. Besides, I love reading books during the train and flight journeys. I have found the books to be my better travel companions than anyone or anything else.

5. Choose five of your favourite books and tell us why you loved them so much!

Before I speak of my favourite books I would like to make the observation that this is a choice and selection made by my subjective decision based on the effect these books had on my person.

First One: The Stranger. This is the first book to challenge my life. I am a person with certain beliefs and for the first time I felt threatened of my beliefs. If words had power to bring down a person, then this was a book that teased my long cherished beliefs and consequently was driving me mad. Literally I felt like an empty person and found no meaning for my life after having read this book. This was the situation for two weeks. Only slowly someone helped me to see the historical context of the book and explained few things relating to the book and thus helped me to come out of its negative effect. If you want me to be specific, I can say that this book almost killed my religious belief for I was/am deeply religious and a staunch believer.

Second One: Frankenstein. This book gave me more than what I expected. I had begun the book with lot of apprehensions. I am not a big fan of horror and science fiction. But Mary Shelley surprised me with a superb story filled with lot of insights on science, ambition, guilt, remorse and vengeance. A dialogue that still rings in my ears is: “You are my creator, but I am your master, obey.� Today we live under such fate � being ruled by the creations/inventions. Mary Shelley was a great prophet.

Third One: Invisible Cities. At the back leaf of the edition that I have of this book a person named Jeanette Winterson had blurbed thus: � The book I would choose as pillow and plate, alone on a desert island.� And I agree with her. With this book I found an invaluable gem of an author from whose charm I can not free myself. Or am I a willing fly in his spidery web of writing? This book gave me a different literary experience. This was not a typical novel with a well structured plot. But it is more of a venture into a different world � a world of magic in which words appeared in a way and in the next moment they would magically be transformed into something else. As a reader I was left with wonder at the magical combinations of simple words/sentences.

Fourth One: A Model Childhood. This is the book that I had read recently. As a person interested in politics and history I had already read enough books on World War II. But most of my books were the products of either the victims of Holocaust or the victors. I had never read till then an “insider account,� an account by a German of the Third Reich. And this book revealed exactly that and along with that as an addition it also presented the themes of ‘haunting memory,� ‘reconciliation of present with the past,� ‘the difference between the surviving and living,� etc. Christa Wolf uses a dense language and that is because she writes on a theme that is very dense. Writing one’s memoir or one’s past is equal to re-opening a wound or to re-living it again or in simple words a willing act of ‘self mutilation� (W. G. Sebald’s terms). Reading Christa Wolf, I understood exactly that and my heart went out to her.

Fifth One: Collected Fictions. He is also similar to Italo Calvino. He writes in a short story that is really short (at times, in just half page) a great philosophical treatise. Try for example his short stories titled ‘BOOK OF SAND� or ‘BORGES MEETS BORGES�. You might get them in the pdf form or in a blog post. This is a link to BOOK OF SAND:

Try it in your free time and it is a pleasure for any reader. And you will know why I love Borges.

Other Notable Works that beg to be mentioned are: If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, The Scarlet Letter and Pedro Páramo.

6. Do you prefer reading fiction or non fiction?

I love reading and I love reading anything that is well written. I do read fiction and non fiction. Among the genres in fiction, however I am yet to be accustomed to reading few genres, such as, young adult, dystopia, and science fiction. Among the genres in non fiction I normally prefer biographies, works relating to politics, science, culture, philosophy/theology, and history. I also love spiritual discourses, specially relating to Christianity.

7. Are you fond of a particular author and what attracts you to their books? (You can pick a few if you can’t choose!)

At present I can speak of a particular author. That is Italo Calvino. He is a Master Wizard. From his Magic Wand flows words and stories that can enchant and entertain anyone. He entertains you like a kid and enthralls you with fantastic observations. He is an author who can entertain any type of audience (children or adults, young or old, literate or unlettered, rustic lot or the urban lot, a believer or a non believer, etc.). I often wonder and imagine that Calvino must be the special person in Heaven who might be entertaining every angel and every saint with his stories or that he might be the court jester of Lucifer in Inferno who would be escaping his punishment by sending all the dark angels reeling with incessant laughter by his witty narrations of life on earth. I do not normally have a craze for a personal encounter with the writers. What matters most is their writing and I strongly endorse it. If I could relax my rule a bit, I might do it for Italo Calvino.

8. Is there an author you haven't yet tried but you'd really like to?

There are many. But some of them seem to be seeking my urgent attention. I will only mention their names. Two Spanish writers have been calling my attention to them. They are: Javier Marías and Roberto Bolaño. A contemporary Norwegian writer, Karl Ove Knausgård and few Italian writers such as Carlo Emilio Gadda, Leonardo Sciascia and Umberto Eco are also haunting me. I also have an urge to try something by Willa Cather in the immediate future.

9. Do you rely on goodreads to keep track of your reading or do you have your own method?

My shelf keeps track of my reading physically and my mind keep track of my reading mentally. I do not rely on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to keep track of my reading. Howvever Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ has helped me in finding some interesting books and I am extremely grateful to it for helping me in finding some surprising and wonderful friends.

10. What's the best book you've read so far this year? What are you reading at the moment? What will you be reading next?

I began the year with one of the best books. That is Sigrid Undset's Gunnar's Daughter. A superb tale with wonderful dialogues. This was followed by three other interesting books. They are: The Rings of Saturn, an ode to destruction of the ancient world and transience of humanity; The Castle of Crossed Destinies - For Calvino's magic and The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories - an interesting narrative style with multiple opening to understandings.

At present I am reading two fictions: Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays (I am loving this book) and Rebecca.

I am also reading a fantastic biography: Catherine of Siena.

Thanks for reading through......

Dhanaraj, I loved reading your literary journey, hearing about your childhood and about the books and authors that mean something to you. Among them are many that I know and share a passion for, the rest is found on my list of books to read already, most likely because I heard you praise them in the past ;) Not very surprisingly Karl Ove Knausgård is on this list as well and should you care for a companion for A Death in the Family for example you'll know where to find me ;)

I think it's really interesting what you've said about 'The Stranger' and makes me want to re-read the book. It's interesting how fiction, well written, can shake you to the core, how something fictional has the power to change your reality.

Thanks again!

Loved reading this.

@ Jenny: "It's interesting how fiction, well written, can shake you to the core, how something fictional has the power to change your reality." - Can not agree more.

@Alannah: Thanks.....

What a brilliant reading journey Dhanaraj, I loved finding out a little more about your childhood and reading habits. You speak so passionately about books that have touched you for one reason or another and I have added several of your favourites to my TBR list, as they are unfortunately authors that I have not read before. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us : )

Dhanaraj - I found it extremely interesting to read your journey, so different in many respects to mine, and yet ending up in a similar place: a love of reading. Your description of reading the comics reminds me of my mother - she taught herself to read using the comics in the newspaper and like you, inspired her love of reading.

I have already put Italo Calvino on my TBR but am now moved to greater effort. And the Borges is also on my list as a book for South America for our Around-the-World challenge. I just realized while typing this how cosmopolitan your 5 favorites are!

@ Pink and Leslie: Thanks for the good words. The passion for reading is what keeps life interesting. I can not imagine a world (at least my world) without the activity of reading. I love to share in the opinion of J. L. Borges regarding books and paradise. He wrote once: “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.�

@ Leslie: If you want to try Italo Calvino, I would ask you to begin with Our Ancestors trilogy.

Dhanaraj your answers make me feel so humble. We take reading and literacy so much for granted here in the West and forget what a great gift and liberation it is. Thank you for writing.

Dhanaraj: I was moved by what you wrote: also in Italy up to my generation was not so obvious that parents could read: my husband's mother for istance can barely read two or three lines, definitly not a story for children. How we tend to takes things for granted!!!
And also for me Frankenstein has been a discovery! Not to speack about CAlvino!!!

@ Tweedledum: Thanks for the good words. I am humbled.

@ Laura T: I loved FRANKENSTEIN and you know very well that I love Calvino....

Dhanaraj, thanks so much for taking part in this. Although your journey is very different to mine, it has been great to hear how you have come to love reading. As you know, I was also quite taken with Frankenstein when I read it, and even though we come from different backgrounds, it is interesting that we have this book in common. I have already added A Model Childhood to my "to read" list and may well add some more of your favourites, too. Just need the time to read them now!

@ Shirley: I have seen it happen many times - the book being a favourite to different persons for different reasons. And FRANKENSTEIN falls naturally into that list.

A MODEL CHILDHOOD was a different experience. The struggle of a person to reconcile the present with the past seemed the main plot to me and it spoke volumes.

Dhanarah, this was very interesting and enjoyable to read. Thankyou!

I see from what you write that English was your second language at school. Can I ask, would it be common for Tamil speakers to learn other languages from the Indian subcontinent eg Hindi? Also would literature from other subcontinent languages tend to be translated into Tamil, or vice-versa?

I've had a quick look on Kindle and I see that Kural is available there in two versions. That's good!

In India, Hindi being the national language is 'the compulsory second language' in all schools of all states except in my state Tamil Nadu. In our state, the second language is always 'English'.

Initially there were not much interest in translations in the Tamil literary circles. But these days, there is a renewed taste for translated works be it from other Indian languages or from English.

That's interesting. Is there any particular reason why it is different in Tamil Nadu?

Gill, It is a big story. To say it in short, Tamils saw it as a move to relegate the local languages to oblivion. They saw it as a cultural aggression from the central government which was formed mostly by the North Indians.
If you are interested you can also consult wikipedia:

Great reading journey Dhanaraj. Comic books and graphic novels are awesome. I've never read Frankenstein before. I'll have to check it out sometime. :)Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

@ Amber: Thanks and FRANKENSTEIN is really a fantastic tale.

No problem. (Gives Dhanaraj a thumbs up) :)

It was interesting to read your reading journey. Also my parents weren't that into books so I started to like it at school and later going to the library.
If your mother didn't read you bedtime stories, didn't she at least told you all the tales from the Mahabharata or the Panchatantra? Because every Indian I talk here on GR says that they all listened to those tales when they were kids.

dely: My mother never told me stories from Mahabharata. Probably she herself did not know it better. In Tamil region we have stories similar to Panchatantra and she told such stories very rarely. Usually in my region, the mother sings "Lullabies" to babies and they are superb. My mother was not a great story teller nor a lullaby singer. She was good in riddles and in maths. We, the children used to always fail to give the right answer. Later, I was fond of listening to her narrating her own life story as a girl in her parents' village. That she could tell always.

Dhanaraj wrote: "Later, I was fond of listening to her narrating her own life story as a girl in her parents' village. That she could tell always. "

I'm sure it was interesting to hear about her life. I loved, for example, listening to my grandfather talking about WWII.

dely: Parents' life story is, usually the best story that as a son or daughter one can listen to....Christa Wolf in her novel A MODEL CHILDHOOD compares it to the fairy tale. And I agree with her.

Dhanaraj wrote: "dely: Parents' life story is, usually the best story that as a son or daughter one can listen to....Christa Wolf in her novel A MODEL CHILDHOOD compares it to the fairy tale. And I agree with her."

Yes, I agree.
I must look for that book! I hope to find it but it isn't easy.

Dhanaraj wrote: "Gill, It is a big story. To say it in short, Tamils saw it as a move to relegate the local languages to oblivion. They saw it as a cultural aggression from the central government which was formed m..."

Thanks, Dhanarah. I've read the article. I understand a bit more about it now.

@ Gill: In fact, thanks to you for reading through the article.

Great reading journey, Dhanaraj! The part about The Stranger startled me. But I am so very glad your faith prevailed! I have found that sometimes the very things that test our faith end up making it even stronger than it was before.

@Nicole that is so true Nicole. We should not be afraid of things that challenge our perspective.@Dhanaraj I am so glad someone was able to help you with your thoughts and faith after reading The Stranger, which is not a book I know. A long time ago I read a book called Your God is too small. By JB Phililps. This book helped me realise that all of us and all religions want to try and put God into a box, a human box, and he/ she/other is always trying to help us see there is more, so much more than we can possibly understand.

@ Nicole and Tweedledum: You are right. The faith that was shaken became strong and today I do not fear any other books with different opinions. I read all of them to get their views and I know my faith.

:) walk in the light!