I came, I saw, I read. Review on 5 Best Books

When I saw this topic for the first time, I felt writing about 5 best books would be an exercise in futility given the sheer quantity of literature available for consideration. But when I decided to write about the 5 best books I have ever read, I found that certain books were so brilliantly conceptualized and written that they clouded out all other books I have read. The following books make for great reading and re-reading.

Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

I read this book for the first time a long time ago, didn't understand a lot of the flowing prose but I did get the gist of the story and liked it a lot. Recently I read it again and was blown away by the magnificence of Dumas' work. This is a tale of an ordinary man whose life gets altered due to circumstances beyond his control and how he deals with it. Its got it all - love, betrayal, tragedy, malice, cunning, revenge, hope, justice .. you name it, the book has it. Dumas' skill is unquestionably good. The language is excellent and this book adopts a technique which is one of my favorites i.e using history as a backdrop for fiction because if written well this technique makes fiction very authentic . Set in the times of Bonapartist France and with a story spanning decades, this is a must-read.

Lord Of The Rings - J R R Tolkien

I heard of this book when the movie LOTR - Fellowship Of The Ring was released. Strangely I didn't even know this book existed. But once I read it, I was hooked. This is fiction through and through. What Tolkien manages to create is a fantastic world of elves, dwarves, hobbits and other creatures that is so well-detailed that one wonders if there really is a world envisioned by him. LOTR in a simplistic summary is a story of a certain ring that is a sign of absolute malevolence that has fallen into the hands(or fingers) of a certain hobbit and has to be destroyed at the earliest. To queer the pitch, the ring can only be destroyed where it was forged. The story revolves around the mission to destroy the ring and the persons involved in this task.  Tolkien's genius shines through in the way the story is built up with quite a few forays  and references into previous stories involving these characters, some of them in other books penned by him. I recommend this to people of all ages for the underlying message of triumph of good over evil that it conveys and also to salute the imagination of a man who could dream up such a magical realm.

Fear Is The key - Alistair Maclean

To be honest, there isn't a Maclean book that I have read and not liked. He is one of my favorite authors and I regard this as one of his best works. Like most Maclean stories, it has a lot of action. The story revolves around an undercover operation to nab a bunch of criminals as they attempt to recover sunken treasure. Woven into this is a tale of a man who loses his family because of the criminals. The pace never slackens as the story heads to a thrilling finale. There is also a love story merged quite seamlessly into the plot. A recommended read for all fans of Maclean and the thriller genre.

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Made into movies starring actors of the calibre of the peerless Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and James Caan, this book written by Mario Puzo is a story of two generations of Italian immigrants in the US, the Corleones, and their trials and tribulations as they build and rebuild the empire of the feared Cosa Nostra in the US. This is a classic story of a reasonable man, Don Vito Corleone, and his family. This is a story of Michael Corleone sucked into a world of deceit, crime and retribution and his coming of age. What I think works in favour of this novel, in addition to its quite authentic portrayal of immigrants and America of those times, is its twists and turns. A first time reader can never guess where the story is headed. A very good read. I think this is one of those rare cases where the movie(s)[Godfather 1 and 2] have been as good as the book resulting in a interesting situation where both the book and the movies have fed off each others' successes creating legends of the movies and the book. If you can't get the book, atleast watch the movie.

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rnd

There are books and then there are books like The Fountainhead. Undoubtedly the best book I've ever read, the only other book that came close to this one is the same author's Atlas Shrugged. Atlas Shrugged is the logical continuation of the theme of The Fountainhead. I don't know what the plot of The Fountainhead is - is it a story of a person's struggle against society or is it a story of  another person's struggle against oneself or is it a story of yet another person's struggle to belong or is it all of that put together and some more. Contrary to what many people tend to think, I don't think it glorifies selfishness or selflessness, all it does is glorify the heroic in man. This book gives us a vision of perfection that is both spellbinding and awe-inspiring. One thing about this book is you may never feel the way I did when you read it. It does manage to touch the reader in some way though and therein lies the beauty of this book. Don't read it with any expectations. When I read it, I had no idea about the author or the book. This is not a guide in self-help or philosophy or way of living but you may well find it so. Read it to know what I mean.

Thats all, folks. Hope you get an opportunity to read these books and enjoy the experience just as much as I did.