This post is in continuation to my previous post on books which have influenced me a great deal. These books I hold very dear to my heart and they often help guide me in my life. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list because I suppose as I grow older I will have more books influencing me and the list will grow. But for now, I will stop at listing ten books which I am so grateful I got to read.  This post will list the last five of my current list.

  1. The Masnavi– Written by Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalal-ud-din Rumi, I discovered this book when I was sixteen. Actually it is not really a book, but rather a collection of mystical poetry. I consider Rumi as one of my teachers because it was through his poetry that I was introduced to the vast world of mysticism. The Masnavi challenged my very view of God. It shook up what little belief I had and made me re-evaluate exactly why I believe in a God. Rumi’s poems projected me into a world of mystical experiences which cannot be explained by mainstream religion or even logic. Whenever I read a poem from the Masnavi, I literally get choked up with emotion and happiness.
  2. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut– Now I know almost all of my favourite books are in some way or the other connected either to travelling or spiritualism in some way, so I probably appear to some as a serious bore. I’ll make an exception from my usual series of boring books on seriousness to something more lighthearted. Slaughterhouse 5 is my go-to book whenever I want to have a serious laugh about how seriously I am taking my serious life ;). It is lighthearted, silly and just plain funny. It does have some wonderful life lessons too but I am not too bothered by them.
  3. Ruskin Bond’s stories– Ruskin Bond has been one of my favourite authors since childhood. His stories are innocent, simple and so refreshing. His stories of Dehradun, Mussorie and the Himalayan foothills captivate my imagination and send me onto a path of cool mountain walks. Ruskin Bond inspired me to write from a young age. His stories will captivate anyone, no matter how old. The simple and clear way in which he writes is a treat for anyone bogged down by the complex world around. My personal favourites are The Room on the Roof, and Panther’s Moon.
  4. The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh– A thoroughly long story about different families, this story spans from Burma to Western India to Malaysia and across three generations. It is a saga of how life changes when governments change and how political turmoil deeply affects life to the miniscule level in a common man’s life. The story is beautifully written and poignant. I love this story because it is set in a region I am very familiar with (South East Asia) and it brings out a lot of nostalgia for the S.E. Asian culture I so love. Amitav Ghosh so beautifully portrays the fragility of human emotions and relationships, of how tiny events can have massive repercussions in one’s life.
  5. Letters by a Modern Mystic by Frank Laubach– Yes, we’re back to mysticism again. I just cannot keep my hands off books on spiritualism because I so desperately  want to know what is going on! This book is an epistolary work, where the author writes about his experience working as a Christian missionary in the Muslim part of Philippines. He writes about the challenges he faced there and how through interacting with Islam and Christianity on very personal levels, he truly starts understanding what it means to be a Christian and messenger of God. He beautifully expresses the similarity in the two religions and stresses how important it is to do everything with a pure heart and dedicating everything we do to God.
    My personal belief in God wavers depending on external circumstances, so to read about a person who understands what it means to really experience God in everything one does was awe-inspiring.

Leave a comment