Reading between the lines: Our personal journey through books

I have learned something from every book I’ve written — and even more from the books I have read.

I remember certain books simply for the sheer joy of reading them. Any “best books” list is always incomplete, often limited by what you can recall at a particular moment. Sometimes those lists are just as revealing for the gems you haven’t read yet.

Books expand your mind and fire your imagination. They transport you and invite you to immerse yourself in the author’s world. But reading is a mutual act of creation — the story lives somewhere between the writer’s words and the reader’s imagination.

I cherish memories of stories from childhood: my mom taking me to the library, and reading aloud to us on long road trips — the best way to quiet a noisy brood in the back seat.

What are the best books you’ve read? Please do let me know.

Here’s my list, arbitrarily jotted down on a leisurely Saturday morning.

1. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
2. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
3. Silas Marner – Mary Ann Evans/George Eliot
4. The Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk 
5. A Man in Full – Tom Wolfe
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
7. Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison
8. Sapiens – Yuval Harari
9. The Green Mile – Stephen King 
10. The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
11.  My Traitor’s Heart – Rian Malan
12.  A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
13. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
14. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
15. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn