A reader lives a thousand lives, before he dies. ~ George R. R. Martin
We all have given into books at some point of our life. Being smartest living being, our brain is always curious to know things. Books are a wonderful way to satiate our hunger to know something about everything. I believe library is the asylum for the mind.
Here is a list of 5 books you should read, if you haven’t yet. I buy my books from Amazon, you can too here
1. The Alchemist
I read this book when I was 11 and I have loved it since. This masterpiece is written by Paulo Cohelo. It was first published in 1988, originally written in Portuguese. Over the years it has been translated into more than 60 languages. The theme of the book is about finding one’s destiny.
I would like to quote Daily Express here
‘Coelho’s writing is beautifully poetic but his message is what counts… he gives me hope and puts a smile on my face.’
You can buy this book here
Few Quotes from the book:
“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what it has to say..”
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
You must have heard this one in Hindi. Doesn’t it sound same as SRK’s dialogue in ‘Om Shanti Om’
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
“If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
2. To Kill A Mocking Bird
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a novel by Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and it became both an instant bestseller. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.The story is being narrated by six-year-old Jean Louise Finch.
In 2007 Harper Lee was rewarded the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ for To Kill a Mockingbird by President George W. Bush.
You can buy this book here
Few Quotes from the book:
“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
“People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.”
“It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”
“Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
3. The Dairy Of A Young Girl
‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ is also known as ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. Anne Frank recorded her experiences of the Holocaust in her dairy for two years (1942 – 1944), when she and her family where in hiding from the Nazi. Story is very moving as well as humorous. It was first published in 1947 in Dutch after the death of Anne Frank. It’s first publication was titled “Het Achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven 14 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944 (The Annex: Diary Notes 14 June 1942 – 1 August 1944)”. The book was translated in English in 1952. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages.
According yo Copyright Law in European Union, the copyright to the Dutch version expired after 70 years of its publictaion in 2016. After this, the original Dutch version was made available online.
You can buy this book here
Few Quotes from the book:
“People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion.”
“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”
“You can be lonely even when you are loved by many people, since you are still not anybody’s one and only.”
“You can be lonely even when you are loved by many people, since you are still not anybody’s one and only.”
“I love you, with a love so great that it simply couldn’t keep growing inside my heart, but had to leap out and reveal itself in all its magnitude.”
4. Three Men In A Boat
I read this book when I was 10 and it’s a fix to my mood any day. Three Men in a Boat was first published in 1989. It is a humorous account of three friends along with their dog going on a boat ride on the river Thames. It was the late Victorian England and there was a vogue for boating on Thames between Kingston and Oxford. Jerome K Jerome was working as freelance journalist. He had got recently married and needed to provide for his wife and family. Jerome K Jerome intended to write a serious travel guide, with historical content of the route aimed at booming market. The book has hilariously captured the spirit of it’s age.
You can buy this book here
Few quotes from the book:
“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing. ”
“What the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over”
“Montmorency’s ambition in life, is to get in the way and be sworn at. If he can squirm in anywhere where he particularly is not wanted, and be a perfect nuisance, and make people mad, and have things thrown at his head, then he feels his day has not been wasted.
To get somebody to stumble over him, and curse him steadily for an hour, is his highest aim and object; and, when he has succeeded in accomplishing this, his conceit becomes quite unbearable.”
“1lb beefstak, with
1pt bitter beer
every 6 hours.
1 ten-mile walk every morning.
1 bed at 11 sharp every night.
And don’t stuff your head with things you don’t understand.”
“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”
5. Think And Grow Rich
It was written by Napoleon Hill in 1937. It is a motivational personal development and self-help book. Hill writes that he was inspired by a suggestion from Scottish American Businessman Andrew Carneige. Though the book’s title and much of the content implies that this book only deals with how to get rich, the author explains that the philosophy taught in the book can be used to help people succeed in all lines of work and to do or be almost anything they want. Think and Grow Rich had sold more than 20 million copies, and by 2015 over 100 million copies had been sold worldwide. BusinessWeek magazine’s Best-Seller List ranked it the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was published.
You can buy this book here
Few quotes from the book:
“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”
“When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.”
“The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.”
“An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.”
“More gold had been mined from the mind of men than the earth it self”
Let me know if this helped in the comment sections below.
