The holy trinity :)

I just finished reading It, I think for the second or third time in more than 12-13 years, I am not sure. But even as I was reading it, I could sense what was coming. Sometimes the actual event or incident that lurked in the next page, and nearly always the accompanied emotion. And even before I started the book, I knew I may cry a few time during the reading, and will surely sob at the end. I did. Not sobbing actually, just a very emotional revolt against what I knew to be inevitable, a sense of loss.

And so it is with Gone with the Wind too, equally dark, equally evocative of thoughts around survival, love, power, beauty, discipline, knowledge.

People would think I am crazy. At best, both books are considered huge bestsellers , highly influential in their genre and very respectable additions to any bookshelf. At worst, huge bestsellers. Period.

And yet this is how I feel. Raw involvement. Maybe its to do with the fact that I read them, along with The Fountainhead, at what’s considered the “formative” stage of my life and hence a lot of ideas and emotions expressed in these three books resonated strongly within my adolescent mindspace. I would also like to think, though I am sure it will be heavily argued, that all three are highly underrated in term of literary achievement, though the influence of all three over their respective genres cannot be questioned.

Anyway, suffice to say that in the list of thousands and thousands (and that’s how I say this, with a sweeping air, the words dying off to an awed silence…) of books that I have read, these three stand out for the impact they have on me.

Strangely, I no longer have the original copies which I read...have had to re-buy all three. Which is sad, because there's something about the well thumbed copy that seems so comfortable.