Books & Authors-1

I got into the habits of reading books through the usual route of reading suspense thrillers in Hindi. The Novels of Ved Prakash Kamboj and many other Meerut based authors known as "Jasoosi"books. Vijay Series, Vinod Series, Col.Hamidmetc. were the heroes, and this was my teenage obsession.

Then shifted over to English thrillers; James Bond series by Ian Fleming, Nick Carter, Micky Spillane et all before I discovered Perry Mason series by Earle Stanley Gardener.
The court room dramas & investigative efforts of Perry Mason, the lawyer, with a small cast of Paul Drake, Della Street, Lt.Craig,Sgt.Holcombe was a fantastic world. I learnt a great deal about American legal system, even though I hardly knew anything else about US.

Next was James Hadley Chase. I finished the entire series of over 100 books over a period.All of them interesting,racy,crime thrillers. One book which I enjoyed the most was the only comic wrtten by Chase, " Miss.Shumway waves a wand", it was fantastic.I finished college and got into a job.

Nagarajan, a colleague lead me to Alistair Maclean came next, and I became his fan reading all his books including Guns of Navrone,Where Eagles Dare, HMS Ullyses, Night without end, South by Javahead,Ice Station Zebra,Satan Bug,For whom the Bells toll, and saw all those movies too. His later books, from Circus onwards were a big disappointment.He was the master of the arctic. The way he described,cold,freezing,arctic regions, I would feel cold even in hot summers of Delhi!
Then I discovered Helen MacInnes, and I still like her books, and read them again and again. Spy thrillers, but no James Bond type super heroes. Her hero would have only 2 qualifications; one ,he is intelleigent & resourceful, second he is a patriot. That's all. Her description of landscape was so perfect that I can still visualise the locales.Venetian Affair, Message from Malaga, Assignment in Britanny, Salzburg Connection are some of books that I remember.For a book review visit:http://tinyurl.com/2dtm6q6


I was lead to read Irving Wallace & Arthur Hailey. Wallace's, The Man, The Prize, The Word, Seven Minutes,were fantastic books, From R-document onwards, his decline started. Hailey wrote super books, Airport, Final Diagnosis, Moneychangers, Wheels,every book used to be a treatise on a particular industry viz: Aviation, Banking, Healthcare,Automobiles etc. He too went down the hill, and is hardly visible now.Frederick Forsythe who came on scene with the Day of the Jackal, and Dogs of War.He went on improving with every new book, and his latest, "The Afghan" is also very good.

One of newly acquired friends, Virinder Sahi introduced me to Ayn Rand. Oh man, that was a fantastic milestone of my life. I finished reading , " Atlas shrugged" and "Fountainhead" one after another, day and night, and took over a fortnight to recover and come back to normalcy. I was in a daze!. I have built a collection, and go back to Ayn Rand time and again. This is one author aboput whom I cannot talk, you have to experience it.

My Marketing & Sales Job entailed lot of travelling, and with each journey , I will acquire new books at airports. The bookshop guys became good friends. There is this Sindhi guy at Bombay airport ( Now he is downstairs near IA departure gate) who was an avid reader and would suggest good books. He introduced me to 3 authors, quite early in their debut years, who ruled the roost for many many years. These were: John Grisham, Tom Clancy & Michael Crichton. I have read anything & everything written by these 3 superstars.Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan & Rainbow Six series are excellent. I didn't much like the Op-Centre series.

Robert Ludlum wrote some excellent books,Matarese Circle,Aquitaine Progression, Parsifal Mosaic & Bourne Series, the first 3 were excellent. As a reviewer and a critic, I have found Ludlum taxing the gullibility of his readers with his bizarre, outrageous plots, implausible storylines, and his constant fixation on ’’conspiracy by a super-secret, ultra powerful, underground organisation’’ which has been repeated so many times that it has become a bore. Nevertheless, as a reader, Ludlum has never ceased to fascinate me with complex plots, twists and turns, fast paced action, violence, heroics, nerve wrecking drama,intrigue,nail biting suspense, and his ability to keep the adrenaline pumping, readers on tenterhooks, making his books ’’unputdownable’’
He started declining from Hades Factor onwards.His death made him a hero and even after so many years of his demise, his books hit the streets , Ghost written by his ex-partner Eric Van Lustbader...he is nowhere near Ludlum.

Some of my book reviews on Ludlum's books are: Cassandra Compact--:http://tinyurl.com/3al5vke, Prometheus :http://tinyurl.com/25ffntf

This series of blogs will continue.