On World Book Day, bibliophiles tell us about their favourite read

Ask a bibliophile about their favourite book and there’s a good chance they will shake their head and protest — ‘There are so many! How do I choose just one?’ That’s what author Twinkle Khanna did when in an earlier interaction with this paper, we asked her to tell us about the one book she would recommend everyone to read. Finally, she said, “The Little Prince because I feel it has something for every age group. It is an allegory of life.”

One of India’s most celebrated authors, Ruskin Bond, famously said, “A great book is a friend that never lets you down. You can return to it again and again and the joy first derived from it will still be there.” On World Book Day, we asked some book lovers to tell us about the one book they keep going back to and they recommend everyone to read...

DURJOY DATTA
AUTHOR

It’s the Hannibal series by Thomas Harris. It was my introduction to the thriller genre and it’s a great starting point. I have been addicted to the genre ever since.

SHARIN BHATTI
CO-FOUNDER, BOOKS ON TOAST AND HIVE

I’m always reading, so nearly every week I have a favourite. But if I had to recommend one all-time favourite it would be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Caroll found the perfect totem to open our minds to the imagination. Free thinking, magic and a great message in the end: you may be of any age yet you’ll relate to it. There’s a fun story, there’s magic, there’s philosophy, there’s a comment on socio-political structures. It’s also a great book to re-read, and what I love especially is the dialogues and Alice’s internal dialogue. They are super witty.

RASHMI BANSAL
AUTHOR AND MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

If you choose to pick up just one self-help book, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay is the one I recommend. Reading it changed my life, it made me understand that I am creating disease in my body through my patterns of thought. The book is simply and beautifully written, full of practical wisdom. Do the ‘mirror work’ exercises the author prescribes and experience the magic for yourself!

HIMANJALI SANKAR
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, BLOOMSBURY INDIA

Jean Rhys’ prequel to Jane Eyre, The Wide Sargasso Sea, altered my neat, tight-laced understanding of life as it were — it erased my abiding fear of the irrational, of insanity, instilled by the image of Bertha Mason tearing up Jane’s wedding veil, terrifying as it was for me as a child. The conviction in a backstory, of an empathetic logic behind all we do was my biggest takeaway from Jean Rhys, apart from just altering many conventional notions of literature I had — of race, of gender stereotypes, of marginalisation. The sheer wonder in worlds differently imagined and the very boldness of completely dismantling a classic to create a new one!

ANUYA JAKATDAR
CO-FOUNDER, BOOKS ON TOAST

A book I recommend is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. It’s a book that will shatter you, make you question your own allegiances, and show you a different perspective while reading as a really, well-written and pacey crime thriller. It spawned an entirely new genre: the non-fiction novel and took up a chunk of Truman Capote and his bestie Harper Lee’s time, and as you read it, you’ll see why it’s life-changing.