Q. Which are your top 5 favourite books in Fiction and Non-Fiction? And which would you recommend for us to read? 

Ans. Hmm. Very difficult question! Because, I read all the time! And especially when I renounced, for a while I stopped reading completely. But then I started reading again because I needed to find stories to share with you people, and humour and jokes and so on. And my job is to not to make up stories, so I had to read elsewhere. 

So, I have made a little list here, of my favourite books that I am going to share with you. Today, in the world of Internet, if you go online, you will be able to buy them from Amazon or some place. So, they are in no particular order, I won’t say one is better than the other, but nevertheless, I have made a list. 

Non-Fiction 

In Non-Fiction, books that really touched my heart, or books that really made me think (like thought-provoking reads) are : 

  1. Man’s Search for Meaning (by Viktor Frankl) : I highly recommend everybody should read this book. It’s by a holocaust survivor, and what all you go through and how you get your priorities straight when you know that you could be the next one dying in the next minute!  So, it’s a beautiful book. I recommend that you read it. 
  2. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna : It once again shows the heart of a simple childlike saint, and what happens when you live your life with Surrender and Devotion. 
  3. In Search of Excellence : These two books (3rd and 4th) are actually business books, but they really made me “Think”, and I read them many many years ago (One of them I read when I was in college in 1996). I really quite liked that book.
  4. Built to last 
  5. Voices from Chernobyl : This one which I read was quite beautiful, at least some parts of it were quite insightful in the sense – What goes on when there is a war-like condition, or when your government kind of stops thinking about you, and they have some other agenda of their own. This was written by a Nobel Laureate. This woman won the Nobel prize for not particularly this work, but also for other works. It’s a beautiful book. This is about the Nuclear plant disaster that happened in Russia (In Chernobyl), how it impacted people and other life forms. It shows “As human race, we are I think 0.01% on the planet, but we have managed to wipe out 99.9% of pretty much rest of the species”. It shows the extent of disaster we are able to build in this world. 
  6. The Story of My Experiments With Truth : This is the book by Gandhi. I think it was called his autobiography. This was quite beautiful. I don’t agree with everything Gandhi said or did, but some parts of this book are quite nice. At least this person spoke the Truth. 
  7. Buddha in Blue Jeans : This is a little funny book which I liked. It’s a deep book. It’s poetic, just talking about the essence of life and meditation.
  8. Journey of a Thousand Miles(by Lang Lang) : This was a book I only read 2 or 3 years ago, I don’t remember exactly. It’s the journey of a little boy out of China, who became a world famous Pianist. And how he worked, how his father supported him in his journey, and what all it takes to really scale or accomplish your dreams!

And by the way, I feel that : When you read a book, don’t expect every page to be good, every word to be good , every paragraph to be engaging, unless of course it’s Om Swami’s book!!! (Laughter). I’m just joking. The way I look at a book is : When you get a book, and even one sentence stays with you, it gives you a new way to look at life, new ways to do things, I think the book is paid for(worth buying)! Don’t expect more. 

to be continued….

 

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