A Coronavirus lockdown reading list by Samit Basu

Staying indoors for a while? We have you covered. For your weekly Reading List, fantasy and sci-fi author Samit Basu recommends comfort reads by writers unparalleled in their genres, including some who inspired his own writings

Kochi,30/01/11.Author, Samit Basu. Photo:H.Vibhu.

Guards, Guards by Terry Pratchett

 

 

Sir Terry’s Discworld, a multicultural fantasy universe, was one of the primary inspirations for the world-building of my first novel. Guards, Guards! is the first book of the City Watch trilogy, one of the best entry points into Discworld. I wish Pratchett were still alive today — he’d have brought so much wisdom, empathy and humour to a world that really needs it.

 

Leave it to Psmith by PG Wodehouse

 

Wodehouse is very old-school nowadays, but this book has been a lifelong favourite. Reading it can still give you the same feeling seeing a dog GIF in the middle of a dozen terrible news reports can. I grew up on this.

 

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

 

NK Jemisin swept all the fantasy/scifi awards for all three books in the trilogy that begins with The Fifth Season. In a time of climate change and other earth-shattering events, it’s also extremely contemporary and relevant, even though it’s completely timeless and possibly alternate-world. It’s hard to write a truly new and epic fantasy nowadays, but she does it.

 

The Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray translated by Sukanta Chaudhuri

 

Carroll, Seuss/Gissell, Nash, Lear: Ray’s children’s classics match the best of these masters, and his other works reveal an immense ability for dark satire, both political and social. A lot is lost in translation, but what resonates when you read the originals is a confidence very few other Indian storytellers possess.

We would love to know how you are keeping busy at home. Tell us what you are reading at metro@thehindu.co.in