The title might, just seem a little too dramatic, but hey...isn’t that the way all books begin ?

To be really frank, that is not the case always. Since this is a place to be airing (or ’streaming’ rather) your own opinion, I’d like to put forward mine.

For most of the young crowd that may be reading my review right now, a name like John Grisham might just seem a little too familiar. Or we just might have been grown up on Puzo. We know a world made out by these men, and it seems so real, so satisfying to read in a book.

The problem, for me is that the young people nowadays are just not interested in what has happened in the past. We just might claim to be vociferous readers even when we don’t know who a certain Mr. Thomas Hardy was. We have all heard of Charles Dickens...but how much of him have we read. Don’t think that its necessary to read everything that is old, but how many of have really, even tried??

As for the actual article goes...I’d really like to recommend a few of theses authors, most of whom, ironically, or plain coincidentally, happened to live in roughly, the same period, thats from the start of the 19th century into the mid 20th century. Heres the list :
1)Rudyard Kipling
2)Thomas Hardy
3)O Henry
4)W Somerset Maugham
5)Charles Dickens
6)Mark Twain
7)Stephen Leacock
8)Ralph Hodgson (Poet)
9)Shakespeare (Poet & playwright)
10)R.L.Stevenson
***books:
1)Kim (Kipling)
2)WEssex Tales (short stories, Hardy)

I really would urge any of you who are reading this, to try and read atleast one or two of these guys. Most probably, you’d have read them in school but never again. WE all think we are too old for these guys. But read KIM (Kipling) again, and see how a non-Indian can know and feel our great country so much better than many of us can ourselves. Read a short story by Hardy and you’ll know how a story can have REAL twists and turns. O Henry is the same guy whose story you might have read in your text book in school. The same story, you so liked because of the twist in the tale...right at the very end, that totally turns the plot on his head.

Summarizing what I said over here, I just say, try and find a short-story collection of 20th century English or American writers, most probably you’ll find most of them in there. Read the short stories, and please, don’t forget to drop me a line if you like anything I recommended. Also, try to get a novel or too of any of these greats.

You’ll see how they make Grisham eat the dust...proverbially !!! You’ll never again say you just DIG Grisham just coz you think its so cool to say so.