All 'bout true frendz -Buks

Since this is on one of my favourite topics (books), I don’t mind Vigs tagging me and even if it wasn’t on books, I don’t mind tags because it really gives you something to write about without thinking too much.
On a side note, I should say that considering the number of times I fill such questionnaires especially in restaurants (where the bill is always invariably handed to the guy and the feedback form to the girl!) I should have mastered the technique by now.

So without further delay lemme proceed in the direction of the questions at hand

Total number of books owned :
After someone flicked my “Gone with the Wind” besides umpteen others whose titles currently slip my mind, after I lost “Rebecca” while travelling, I had given up on buying books and started patronizing the neighbourhood library Kaleidoscope – which btw has an amazing collection of Tintins as well :-)
Recently I restarted my collection, I think it wud be a miserly 80+ books falling under the category of fiction.

The last book bought :
well I picked atleast half a dozen books at Blossoms but lemme put down the one treasure that I’d picked there in hard bound- “The ThornBirds”

The last book you read :
Itz Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide –not a bad read at all considering my prejudice against Indian authors.

One Book I Couldn't Finish:
James Joyce’s Ulysses takes the cake –I have not yet given up hope that one of these days I would definitely finish it.

Five books I always cherish:

In order to sound different (from my mouthshut review on 5 Best Books) I choose a different set of books here

1.The Colour Purple by Alice Walker -
It is just a coincidence that Purple is indeed my favourite colour n coming to the book it is 'bout Life as seen thro’ the eyes of an Afro-American woman –it is not only about the tribulations she faces because of her race, faith or gender but also about Hope that shows the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.

2.Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov –
Well this controversial book has always been on my list esp. because of the author’s lyrical (almost poetical) writing style and Humbert Humbert is the perfect love struck protagonist in my eyes and the book is all about love albeit between an old man and a nymphet.

3.Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck –
I hear that this is sort of classic in American literature and rightly so since it captures the essence of the dreams that American farmers nurtured during the Great Depression. A story of the love and dreams shared between two farmer friends and the tragic end that would leave you misty eyed.

4.The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waler
Every once in a while u read a book that completely changes your perspective of love and this is one such book. I know this book evokes mixed response from people, who consider it adultery, but for me it is a simple and eternal story of love between Kincaid and Francesca, sometimes even an affair of 4 days leaves an indelible mark in your lives.

5.The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Ok I can hear my friends screaming “here she goes again ‘bout thornbirds” but I can’t help it (sorry folks!) I know it is just an antiquated love story but the forbidden love of Maggie and Ralph, the Australian home of Drogheda and the entire Cleary family hold a special place in my heart always.

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart. ~Gilbert Highet

5 ppl I would tag it (I haven’t done checks if they have already endured this list!)

the crouching tigress
the desi Barry
first rain
zombie
fiona