Step by step. Review on 5 Best Books

Very difficult indeed to list out 5 favourite books.  There are so many books, on so many subjects, in so many styles, by so many authors. how do you play favourites here?

So I thought I'd narrow it down a bit- make this a compilation of 5 books that left a lasting impression on me at different stages of my life.

Starting with my childhood, (I don't remember it, but my Mom says that I used to walk around, not with a teddy or a doll or a train, but with a book) thee was this book that I got awarded for'best endeavour' in the first standard. The book was a hardbound one, on my first vegetables and vehicles and animals and good habits. Till sometime back, it used to be there at home still, a very dog eared one, but evidently much loved.And I realise why it was fascinating for a kid starting out on letter- it was bright and vividly coloured, and had babies and parents and cars and animals and birds and fruits and vegetables.a lovely world indeed.

As I grew up, I moved to Enid Blyton and was stuck there for a looooong time. All of her books were totally engrossing. They were peopled with kids who had unbelievable freedom to do whatever, go wherever. They owned islands and boats and dogs and horses and monkeys and parrots.they got into the most difficult situations, (most dangerous too), but they got out of them all too. The characters were naughty, but basically good, with right values in life. School to them was a breeze, where they seemed to play more than they studied, where their teachers were SO different.(If only I'd had alt least ONE Mam'zelle like person in school/college/university. sigh!)

Oh, I loved her books and I still do enjoy leafing through some of them, smiling at old remembered situations and scraps.

Being a girl, as I grew up, I graduated to Mills and Boons. I know several of today's generation might snigger at this, but the fact remains that I was addicted to M&B for a looooong while too. Almost all through my teens actually. I know now that these books are brought out by a syndicate, and that there are strict guidelines which the authors have to stick to. But at the time, they made up the stuff of most of my dreams. That somebody like the heroes in the romances would come into my life and sweep me off my feet, protests not-withstanding.(In real life, my hero did come along; he didn't sweep me off my feet, more swept me off my chair, ;-) as we were classmates and always fighting for the chairs in the last row!). It seems to me that the romances now have lost the charm they had in the earlier days. some of the authors I loved(still do) are Janet Dailey, Charlotte Lamb, Carole Mortimer, Anne Mather, Sara Craven, Jessica Steele. The newer ones are crap, all they think about is sex. Not so the earlier ones, the hero and the heroine struck sparks off each other mentally, the phsicality cme much later and was a natural offshoot.

Well, its impossible to go around wearing rose coloured spectacles forever. But it IS possible to go through life with a good sense of humour. so I rested my addiction for M&B, much to the relief of my dear mother, and latched on to P.G. Wodehouse. How do you descibe a Wodehousian world? You have to read it, to fall in love with it. Gentle, potty old Emsworth and delightful Blandings and Beach and Jeeves and Baxter and the aunts and flying flowerpots and pigs pottering in toilets and nightime wanderings and Psmith(P silent as in Psychology, remember)(rest in 2nd comment.)