A weekly column on what well-known personalities are reading and planning to read. This week, it is poet and writer Janice Pariat and former Indian cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi.
Janice Pariat
In my hand lies Han Kang’s The Vegetarian , a slim, elegantly sparse and strange book that's admittedly leaving me disquieted. It won the Man Booker International Prize 2016, and I can see why. Written originally in Korean, and translated by the wonderful Deborah Smith, The Vegetarian tells the story of a woman’s quiet “madness”. To begin with, she turns vegetarian — and the responses of those around her are telling, of Korean society, its prejudices and invisible conflicts. But it’s much more than that. The book is inward. It’s a story about a longing for connection, and compassion, for a self’s unnamed, unnameable freedom.
Janice Pariat is a poet and writer.
Bishan Singh Bedi
My life still revolves around cricket, so I read a lot of books on cricket; it rejuvenates my soul. I am currently reading an old book by an Australian commentator, Alan McGilvray, called The Game Goes On . It’s a very good book. I also read a lot about the psychology of batting. Michael Bond and Gideon Haigh have written some wonderful pieces on this. Unfortunately I'm spending my time now reading about the Supreme Court-BCCI tussle, which will hopefully be resolved soon.
Bishan Bedi is a former Indian cricketer.
