Rating my top five books is definitely a difficult job. As someone had said earlier on this site, after reading so many books of so many flavors, it is really hard to come up with a'Top 5', and the list might vary with your mood.
After spending quite some time thinking over this issue, and accepting the fact that this list might be unacceptable even to me when I am in a different mood, I have decided that the best books that I’ve read are:
#1. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
The Numero Uno Love Story, in my opinion. An epic love saga set against the backdrop of The French Revolution. Charles Darney is a teacher of French in an Institute in London, and also has a secret French connection. He loves Lucie, and she also loves him. But their lives are nearly ruined by the revolution which was supposed to bring justice to the ordinary people. And the situation is saved by Sidney Carton, an unsuccessful lawyer and an unsuccessful man in life who is also in love with Lucie. Watch out for this character specially, you’ll love him.
#2. Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
See what I mean? This book is completely different than the previous one, and placing them on the same list looks queer even to me. But can’t help it – this book made me so happy and caused so much laughter that this HAS to be on my best books list. In fact, if I’m allowed, I would put it as a joint first with AToTC.
It is a funny account of three friends going out on a boat trip, as many of you might already know. Their pet dog also goes with them, and creates as much trouble as others. The fights between George and Harris will surely make you go out of breath, laughing. Hilarious book.
#3. The Complete Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Time for Mysteries!
Yes, I’ve read “The Purloined Letter”, and the Bengali “Byomkesh” and “Feluda” classics, and I enjoyed them very much, but Sherlock rulz!
From the novel where Watson meets Sherlock(“A Study in Scarlet”) to the story in which the author tried to kill of this detective, to his comeback……….the entire spectrum just left me speechless.
A must read for all – and especially if you think detective stories are not first-rate literature(I know many do).
#4. Harry Potter Book 5(Order of the Phoenix) – J. K. Rowling
After mysteries….Magic!
Now, for all you people out there saying this is a children’s book, I read it in my 3rd year in college and liked it very much. And according to me, this is NOT for children below 10 years of age. It is dark, creepy at times, and Harry in this book is virtually unrecognizable from the Harry in books 1 to 4.
I think this is the most mature book so far, and the best one. Before reading this, my favorite in the Harry Potter series was Book 4, Goblet of Fire. But this book takes the characters much further, even if the story as a whole(i.e., battle between Harry and Voldemort) doesn’t move forward much.
I also think that it is a bit too long, and, as someone commented in Amazon.com, the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort at the last of the book is more Speilbergish than Rowlingish. But overall, enjoyable. Even for ADULTS.
And, yes, I am reading The Lord of The Rings currently, and can’t help notice the similarities.
(Warning: You absolutely need to read Books 1-4 before you can touch this one.)
#5. Three Men on The Bummel – Jerome K. Jerome
Hey, did you know that there was another book concerning the same characters from Three Men in a Boat? Well, there actually is – this book is an account of those three friends going on a cycling tour to the Black Forest in Germany. No, Black Forest is not a forest, it is a mountain district of Germany - go revise your Geography books.
This is another hilarious one from the pen of Jerome K. Jerome, and if you don’t compare it with the previous one, a very nice book. This was published a decade after Three men in a Boat(Three men in a Boat was published in 1889 and this one in 1900) and here you see that Harris and J. are married now. If you liked the former, you must read this.
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Yes, I generally read light books more than classics, as you might have understood by now.
Now, I’ve also read books in other languages, especially in Bengali, which is my mother tongue, and I liked many of them. I just wrote about the books that I want to read just now, maybe sometimes this list will not include any of these, but completely different titles. Depends on my mood…….
That’s all for now, folks, thank you for reading.
