Travel a thousand worlds

The summer vacation is probably the best time to catch up on reading. You can create some time for yourself and sit down and enjoy all your favourite books.

Summer vacation is probably the best time to catch up on reading.

It's summer again, and my bookshelf is filled with all the books I wish to read during the vacation. Through the year, I collect books and then during the holidays I park myself on my favourite chair in front of my bookshelf and read!

I have picked up some rather interesting books by Indian and non-Indian authors. There is a book called The Burmese Box . It was written by Lila Majumdar in Bengali and translated into English by Subhadra Sen Gupta. Actually it is a novella with two short but rather exciting stories. One, of course, is about the Burmese Box and the other is Goopy's Secret Diary.

I have a collection of books by Ruskin Bond. What I would read first is

Escape From Java and Other Tales of Danger . It is a collection of five stories, all about danger and adventure.

Have you heard of an author called Pseudonymous Bosch? His books are very different. Of course Pseudonymus Bosch is not his real name. But that's the name under which he prefers to author his books. He has written the Secret Series. Five books, each dealing with one sense. His first book

The Name of This Book is Secret is based on smell, the next If You're Reading This, It's Too Late is based on sound, This Book is Not Good For You is based on taste, This Isn't What It Looks Like is based on sight and the last one You Have To Stop This is based on touch. I couldn't get all the five, though I did manage to pick up This Book Is Not Good For You . It's all about chocolate — but believe me, it's not sweet and syrupy!

I managed to find a book called Attacks of the Volcano Monkeys by Wiley Miller. I really don't know much about it but it does promise a lot of action.

It's not only new books that fascinate me. Sometimes I go back and re-read my old books. And the ones I plan to read again this summer are

The World's Funniest Folktales, Just So Stories, Tales from the Arabian Nights, Pride and Prejudice, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and of course

The Wind in the Willows . A friend gifted me with a book called

The Pearls of Wisdom . It is set in the water world and there are characters like a Black Magi and a Secret Service vampire agent called Count Drunkula, Va- Suki a thousand headed serpent and more. Should be fun I think.

I wonder if you have heard about Feluda? He is a detective created by Satyajit Ray. Feluda and his cousin Topshe stumble upon one mystery after another. Feluda with his super-sharp brain usually unravels the secret and finds the truth. There are a number of Feluda books. The Emperor's Ring , The Curse of the Goddess and Trouble in the Graveyard some of them. Don't miss the Feluda series. They are amazing. Satyajit Ray has also written short stories. Words cannot describe these stories, as they take you away from the mundane every day life into something not only bizarre but sometimes even scary. He has trees that eat flesh and people who make friends with aliens.

R.K. Narayan's Malgudi Days is always a favourite summer read. Set in sleepy Malgudi it takes you through the days of Swami and his friends. It's good to have a mix of genres and so Wordygurdybook! The Nonsense World of Sukumar Ray , could provide a few laughs. Scary stories are fun too. I have with me Jerry Pinto's The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories . Thirteen stories of hauntings, frightening creatures and spirits.

The last shelf of my bookcase has all the old favourites. Gullivers Travels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Black Beauty, King Arthur, Doctor Dolittle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Best of Tagore – Kabuliwalla, The Scarlett Pimpernel …

I have also nicked some books from my mom's childhood collection – school stories, mystery stories and adventure stories too. Most of them are by Enid Blyton. And I also found a couple of worn copies of books by Angela Brazil. My mom says they are school stories and she loved every one of them. I also have a few from the Chalet School series. These books were written by Elinor Brent-Dyer. It's all about a girl called Jo and how her sister starts a school in Austria. These books are simply fantastic.

So that's my reading list. Let me get started.