Booked to read.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

-Groucho Marx

Books are man's best friend (yes, apart from a dog!). Or atleast mine. Oh no! I'm not talking about those which we used to detest as school kids. (Again, atleast me.) Well, what I'm talking about is novels, storybooks, or anything except the ones which you have to study for examinations.

It all began with comics. Yes, the ones like Tinkle, Champak, Archie's, etc. What else would you expect a 2nd standard student to read? Encyclopedia? May be. But I wasn't a wonder kid. Oh! I forgot to mention the fairy tales. How could I ever forget the 'Lived-happily-ever-after' ones! Those are really nice childhood fiction books. A must read.

Ah! Forget about those. Lets get serious. I mean some real books. Nancy Drew, Secret Seven... Hell! I don't even remember any of those name vividly. But truly they were some 'detective' stuff at that age. Yes, I had stopped reading them a decade ago. We had a school library which had a pretty decent collection of such books. I still remember in my last year of school (10th grade), I went to collect an Agatha Christie book. The librarian was a bit reluctant to give me the book and insisted that I take some Test series. And why would I? I never visited the library for study materials in all my 10 years at school. He had to give me the novel.

Later I read some truly great authors like John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Dan Brown and Sidney Sheldon. These authors are a must read for Fiction lovers. Some book I would never want to read is the Mills & Boons series. The romance was so intense, it made me want to throw up! Ugh! I didn't have anything else to read at that time. I've read only one classic so far - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. The story was good. But I found it slow paced and too detailed at times. Oh! Did I not mention William Shakespeare? Hmm, I did read some stories and honestly did not like it that much. Well, the fiction story ends here.

I do not read non-fiction as much as fiction. Or as a matter of fact, hardly any. I did read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi - 'My Experiments with Truth'. The other two which I read are the Dictionary and the Bible. Period.

Oh! And I do still love comics. Calvin & Hobbes are the best. I read every comic strip in the newspaper except for the superheros strips. They are always the one I look forward to whenever I get my hands on a newspaper. Even if its been repeated any number of times.

One thing I'd like to tell you all out there is that if you ever borrow a book from someone, please make sure to return it back after reading and that too, in a proper state. The lessons' over for the day. So, Happy Reading!

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
-G.K. Chesterton

Never judge a book by its movie.
- J.W. Eagan

Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.
- Bill Watterson