This was a FB challenge that I couldn’t resist. While watching people tag friends what worried me more was choosing only 7 book covers and worse still tagging 7 bookish friends. So I started 2 days after I was challenged. How did I choose my book covers? I just left it to my senses and every morning it was a meditation of sorts, closing my eyes to think of books that meant something to me, those that beat me black and blue or hit me hard or identify with and wait for something to stand out of the shelves.
The first one was Book Thief. Since I have already reviewed Book Thief in my blog, I am just keeping it to the Cover here. Book Thief was a life changing book for me. The first time I saw the book review by a Goodreads acquaintance who totally rubbished it taking a dig at the Narrator, I couldn’t help laughing and thought that is the end of this book for me. But then like I always believe, books come to me soulfully. So happens I go to my cousin’s place and she stacks up some books for me to read. I check the titles only on reaching home and there I find Book Thief again.
The image of Death hand in hand with a little girl really gave me the chills. Should I read this I wondered. Maybe just return it without reading, I tell myself. I am paranoid to take it with me to read while commuting, on my way to an official trip, after all Death was on the cover! At last after giving me a thousand reasons to not read and on my way to return the book, this book gets chosen as the Book of the Month of my Book Club. Those were days when I was seriously reading Books chosen in the Book Club, and so I decide to read.
Now there is another reason I didn’t want to read this book, a prejudice by the name Hitler, I admired him during my school life. He was a Hero to me, the connection being Subhash ChandraBose, Indian Independence, World War etc.,. I read about all this in school history, and now I wonder why was the holocaust not touched in History lessons in detail, the way it should have been? Why much needed lessons are never dealt in History classes? Why is it that as kids we were not shown this brutal side?
So it struck me I should read Mein Kampf before Book Thief so that I get the balance. But Mein Kampf was a rude shocker. Hitler’s antisemitism and his writing really made me puke and feel ashamed. It was a metamorphosis to me, to understand what a madman’s ideology can do to people. I started searching and reading articles on the excesses, the programs, and world war still remains the topic to me, though in a different perspective.
Of what use is all this pride of Nationalism, culture, ethnicity, religion, language and so on, I wondered after completing this awesome book. Isn’t the survival of an individual more important than any of this? And if even one person has to be sacrificed for these, are they even worth sacrificing for?
The first one was Book Thief. Since I have already reviewed Book Thief in my blog, I am just keeping it to the Cover here. Book Thief was a life changing book for me. The first time I saw the book review by a Goodreads acquaintance who totally rubbished it taking a dig at the Narrator, I couldn’t help laughing and thought that is the end of this book for me. But then like I always believe, books come to me soulfully. So happens I go to my cousin’s place and she stacks up some books for me to read. I check the titles only on reaching home and there I find Book Thief again.
The image of Death hand in hand with a little girl really gave me the chills. Should I read this I wondered. Maybe just return it without reading, I tell myself. I am paranoid to take it with me to read while commuting, on my way to an official trip, after all Death was on the cover! At last after giving me a thousand reasons to not read and on my way to return the book, this book gets chosen as the Book of the Month of my Book Club. Those were days when I was seriously reading Books chosen in the Book Club, and so I decide to read.
Now there is another reason I didn’t want to read this book, a prejudice by the name Hitler, I admired him during my school life. He was a Hero to me, the connection being Subhash ChandraBose, Indian Independence, World War etc.,. I read about all this in school history, and now I wonder why was the holocaust not touched in History lessons in detail, the way it should have been? Why much needed lessons are never dealt in History classes? Why is it that as kids we were not shown this brutal side?
So it struck me I should read Mein Kampf before Book Thief so that I get the balance. But Mein Kampf was a rude shocker. Hitler’s antisemitism and his writing really made me puke and feel ashamed. It was a metamorphosis to me, to understand what a madman’s ideology can do to people. I started searching and reading articles on the excesses, the programs, and world war still remains the topic to me, though in a different perspective.
Of what use is all this pride of Nationalism, culture, ethnicity, religion, language and so on, I wondered after completing this awesome book. Isn’t the survival of an individual more important than any of this? And if even one person has to be sacrificed for these, are they even worth sacrificing for?
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