The Bookshelf Series 5 - Anjali

Anjali has a decent sized bookshelf. She reads quite a bit and books are definitely one gift she likes receiving. Last summer when we spent a lot of time in Pune, she had a great time polishing off a whole bunch of books. She enjoys her visits to bookstores and before the lockdown had started visiting the secondhand book market at Abids with me and Vinod and was amazed at the prices she got for books there. At various times she has read up series - Nancy Drew, Harry Potter, Mallory Towers being some of them.

Now 12 years and 10 months and teetering over into her teens in a couple of months, studying in her 8th class at Daksha School, part of a newly formed Literary Club committee at school, Anjali was good to go when we sat down for the interview.

Anjali and her bookshelf

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Here's the interview then. Anjali's bookshelf.

HM. How did your reading habit start?

A. I see you reading in and around the house. Maybe mostly inspired by you. I liked reading the Pepper and Bruno book series when I was really young - used to laugh at them throwing tantrums. I also remember that you'd come to put me to sleep and we'd read stories or you would tell me stories. Once, you slept before I did, and I tried to read a book in the dark and my eyes started to hurt so i stopped.

At 7 years I asked you for Secret 7. Everyone asked me what I was reading so I also started to read.


HM. Who influenced you early on to read?

A. You.

HM. What were the books that impacted you most? How?

A. The Harry Potter series took me beyond what I thought I could ever imagine. In two months I finished all seven books. There's so much stuff going on in the word - gender, violence, war, nepotism and other things we hear in the news. I found that the Harry Potter kind of books help me to escape from this reality. 'Wonder' was another book that I cannot forget. 'Aristotle and Dante'' was a beautiful book too. Roald Dahl's stories have always left an impression. 

Agatha Christie for sure. Last year my vocabulary grew more than it did in the previous 10 years of my life thanks to Agatha Christie. I would find new words, search for their meanings and use the words. My friends at school would be surprised. I like her work, the depth, the ingenious plotting.
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Bookshelf

HM. Could you share the list of your top 10-15 books?

A. 1. ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
2. Around the World in 80 Days
3. Wonder
4. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Nancy Drew
7. Artemis Fowl
8. To Sir with Love
9. Mallory Towers
10. Mr. Muddle's Adventures
11. Mr. Pinkwhistle stories
12. Phantom Tollbooth
13. Tell-Tale - Jeffrey Archer
14. 101 Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
15. The diary of a young girl


HM. Who are your favourite authors - top 5?
A: Agatha Christie, Eoin Colfer, Enid Blyton, JK Rowling, Jean Webster


HM: How many books do you read on an average per year these days?
A. 30-40 last year.

HM: How many books do you own?
A: 50-60. I have to count.


HM: What are the books you are reading currently?
A. "Uncle Fred in Springtime" by PG Wodehouse. I just finished reading "Pygmalion" and "The Alchemist".

HM: What's next on your list?
A. Eragon or Paddy Clarke

Another section of the shelf

HM: What are the books you have been meaning to read but have kept pending?
A. Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Right Ho Jeeves, 20000 leagues under the sea

HM: What's the one book you value the most?
A. My Agatha Christie collection and my Nancy Drew collection

HM: What the best book-gift you got?
A. Phantom Tollbooth. Miskil (cousin) gave it to me.

HM: What's the one book you regret losing?
A. None.

Another section

HM: What's the favourite book that you gift people?
A. Once I gifted a Nancy Drew.

HM: Your favourite experience around books, if any?
A. Once we had gone for breakfast with Kalpak at Good Luck restaurant in Pune and while you both were chatting, I finished a book I had got along. I was surprised at myself.

Another experience was going to the second-hand market in Abids. I was amazed at the variety, the prices. It was so cheap. 

I also remember reading Agatha Christie's 'One Two Buckle My Shoe' in five hours. That's my personal record.


HM: If there's an author you would like to write like, who would it be?
A. Maybe Jules Verne.

HM: Authors you would like to meet?

HM: What's your favourite place to shop for books?
A. The Abids second-hand book market. And on Amazon of course.

HM: Any other thoughts around books?
A. Books that create an image in your head are good. If they do that, they're really good, descriptive. Books are like movies that you create for yourself. It's the perfect movie where you can imagine everything the way you want to. I don't like watching movies of books I read.

This one has a few titles of mine 

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Thanks so much, Anjali. I am impressed by the speed and the concentration with which you read books, by your clarity on what you want to read and what not to read. I am looking forward to having this conversation again in a few years.