Having been a confirmed bibliomaniac right from when I was a kid. In fact my parents had to coax me to go out and play, I guess this topic is something up my alley. I was a very private and reserved person, and in fact I still am, and for me books were my best friends. I talked to them, explored the world through them, and learnt a lot about life through them. I can do without movies, I can do perfectly fine without malls, pubs and discotheques, but two things I could never even imagine myself without, are books and music. On a long journey, I just curl up with a book, and a walkman. So much so that my wife calls these her two souten .
So how do you go about reading books. I guess book reading is something that cant be learnt, it is something you need to cultivate. Its very much possible for you to watch a movie and pass the time, you come out with the movie having made no such impact on you. You cant do the same with books, you have to be madly in love with them, only then you can enjoy the pleasures of reading. I often see people carrying the latest hit novel, as proof of their intellectual superiority. Sad chance, they are as shallow as the water in the ditch, ask them about the book and you are likely to get a duh.

Love the Book You Read, Read the Book you love
My sincere advice to people reading books, is don’t try to read a book just because so and so said it’s great. Don’t force yourself to try and understand what’s in the book. Its akin to Chinese torture. Salman Rushdie might be one of the most acclaimed authors, but for me whatever he writes just goes over my head. He might be the greatest novelist, but his books are not my cup of tea. And I am none the worse for it. Books, music and movies are strictly a person’s individual choices. Tomorrow no one is going to put a gun to your head, coz you don’t read Salman Rushdie’s novels. I can read an Alistair Maclean, Frederick Forsyth or Robert Ludlum any number of times without getting bored. People might call them escapist fiction, but I read for my pleasure, and that should be your attitude.

Don’t just read the book, live it
Like I told before unlike a movie where you can spend time without thinking much, books don’t offer the same luxury. To enjoy a book, you have to be involved in it. That’s what bibliomaniacs are. Even in movies there are directors like Manoj Night Shyamalan or Quentin Tarantino who are not every one’s favorites. But talk to fans of these directors, and they can explain their movies in deep philosophical insights. At least I can do it for Shyamalan. When I read a Maclean, its not just the action sequences that interest me, it’s the drama and the plot. I live every character, plotting their strategy, thinking what I would have done. And this enables me to enjoy the book immensely. Alistair Maclean is derided as a escapist writer, but talk to his hardcore fans like me, and you get a totally different picture.

Tune into your author’s ideology
Books are but a way by which the author puts his or her ideas into existence. And unless you are totally in tune with their ideology you can never enjoy the books. Unless you are a die hard capitalist believer, you can never appreciate AynRand. I am able to enjoy Maclean or Ludlum or Forsyth, as I love the world of cloak and dagger. By the same token, I cant really relate to Sheldon’s sob stories of women in trouble. Authors like AynRand, Salman Rushdie,are the sort whom you either hate or love, and you need to be deeply in love with their ideas, to appreciate their novels.

Don’t drop names to impress
When you say you like Robert Ludlum, I ask a person about the Bourne Trilogy. If that person says he doesn’t know about the Bourne Trilogy, I know straight away that person is lying. Because you see Bourne Trilogy is to Ludlum, what Shakuntala is to Kalidas, you simply cant separate one from another. Similiary if you say you are a Forsyth fan but haven’t read Day of the Jackal or an AynRand but haven’t read Fountainhead, I know you are faking. Because these books are the ones which made these authors. So unless you are totally acquainted with an author’s work don’t show off by saying you are a fan of this author. If you get caught by a real fan, you are asking for serious trouble.

So what do I love reading?

Bestseller Novels- Alistair Maclean, Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Leon Uris, AynRand, Agatha Christie, John Grisham

Non fiction work - Domnique Lapierre, Larry Collins, Any good autobiographies

Philosophy & Mgt stuff - Dale Carnegie, Peter Drucker to name a few.

Classic writers & Novelists- Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexandre Dumas, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain.

So I end up by saying only one thing “Read with passion and intensity, live a book, experience it, then only you can enjoy it” .