Novels I Have Read- Part I

I have often wanted to list down all the novels I have read. It will be useful in my old age. I will try to list them in the approximate order in which I read them but it might not be always possible. Also, will try to write a couple of sentences about what I remember from the book. So here I go:

1. A Tale of Two Cities (Class VIII): Marked as the beginning of my reading though I think I had read a few before this one. Set against the backdrop of the French revolution, it is a romance. This book will never have made Dickens a writer for children.

2. Little Women, Robinson Crusoe, White Fang, Wuthering Heights, Heidi and some more I don't remember(Class VII-VIII): All children books, all classics. I wouldn't have got anything else from my schoool library in a small town. Wuthering Heights impressed me most at that age. It's a story of kindness to a forsaken infant, of cruelty, of victory of good. Sadly, its the author's, Emily Bronte's, only book. I was in love with the author and the narrator for a while (I often had/have problems seperating the two).

3. War and peace (Class IX): I began reading serious stuff. To me, the book is nothing special even though its conseidered one of the two greats by Leo Tolstoy. The book's merit, I hink, lies in its recording of russian society of that time.

4. Anna Karenina (Class X): The second book by Tolstoy. While War and Peace is about public affairs too, this is more about family lives of the russian rich and not so rich.

5. Mother (Class IX): My favorite among the three russian novels I read in rapid succession. This novel is set against the growth of the socialist movement in Russia. Very effective narration of how common people, in factories, old women got into the revolution. Could be motivational/propaganda writing.

6. Sherlock Holmes (Class VIII-X): I read and re-read the entire collection. The plots, the thrill, the cool character of Mr. Holmes, lounging on the sofa at his 221, baker street lodgings, the descriptions of English coiuntryside and London: Mr. Holmes was my first hero.

7. Freedom at Midnight (Class IX): A wonderful account of the situation prevailing in our country just before independece through impartial eyes.

8. Fountain Head (Class IX-X): I read the book from cover to cover around seven times. The book was my favorite for many many years and I absolutely worshipped the character of Howard Roark right into the first year of college. An extremely well told story expounding the philosophy of objectivism. An interesting aside: Very aptly the author, Ayn Rand, was a russian who emigrated to USA.

My school readings in terms of serious literature ends with this. i also read Shakespeare's work, The Merchant of Venice, as part of course work but didn't find it very appealing.