Here's what I do when I am stuck in a hotel room

Ok..so here's what I do when I am stuck in a hotel at 7 pm in this district HQ of Ghana..I get on the wireless and read random blogs like there's no tommorrow. And while doing it, I chance upon a quiz that I feel like answering..

1) What author do you own the most books by?
That would be 4 authors:Alexander McCall Smith, Jane Austen, Satyajit Ray and PD James. Kind of a weird combination there.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I used to own dozens of copies of Amar Chitra when I was growing up. And of course copies of my beloved Anandamela, the children's magazine, with which my fondest childhood memories of reading are associated.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Nah. I didn't even notice them.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
So many, but Captain Wentworth from Austen's Persuasion has top-of-the-mind recall, followed by Tridib from Shadow Lines. And Holden Caulfield. And I have always wondered how Maxmillian De Winter would look like. But now that I think about it, I would also like to add some heroes from Shirshendu's novels who made me wish they were real.

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
It'll probably be the Feluda series. Evertime I desire a return to my childhood, they are what I read. Also some of Buddhadev Guha's early novels.


6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Enid Blyton's books, esp Malory Towers. I was so influenced by them that I remember begging my mother to send me to a boarding school.


7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
So many. I keep picking up books that I don't like.

8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Am back to 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes'.


9) If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
I would make people read holy books of religions other than their own. So much ignorance and prejudice can be done away with.

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Haruki Murakami.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
As of now its the Zoya Factor. It's a book made for filming. I would be interested in knowing who play the roles of the Indian cricket captain and his love interest. And Chander Pahar, if only the brilliance of Peter Jackson and BibhutiBhushan combined!

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Definitely 'Shesher Kabita'. They should stop muddling with Tagore. And I didnt like Rebecca, though Hitchcock won an Oscar. It is just made differently in my head.


13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
None really. I don't dream about writers/books/heroes.


14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I read anything I can lay my hands on, but for me the pitts would be Paulo Coelho. I just don't buy into his brand of motivation at all.

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Would be some of the English poets that I studied in college. I always found hard to concentrate on the meaning of each and every word. Oh and how could I forget Hardy, Beckett and EM Forster?

16) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare. The others are more difficult.

17) Austen or Eliot?
Austen.I could live a life just re-reading Austen.

18) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Shakespeare, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Our famous English Professor, Sukanta Choudhuri had violently castigated the entire Eng Lit class for not having finished at least half of Will's original plays. Almost 10 years down the line, I am still happy with Charles Lamb.
Oh and Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Martin Amis. I am yet to read their works. But this gap I am determined to close.

19) What is your favorite novel?
Shadow Lines.

20) Play?
None.

21) Short story?
Telenipota Abishkar. The writing style electrified me.


22) Work of non-fiction?
All seminal work on feminism.

23) Who is your favorite writer?
So many...Austen, Amitav Ghosh, Orwell,Murakami, Italo Calvino, PD James, BibhutiBhushan, Jeebanananda Das,Satyajit Ray