Everybody must read because books and ONLY books can teach character to you.

Books that actually taught me something are listed in chronological order pertaining to my life :

• Growing up, amidst Noddy and Pip, I managed to come across a senior year text book- Tom Brown's school days. What is gave me is hard to tell because like all 10 year olds, I was an impressionable kid. I'd like to believe that the book taught me about brotherhood, loyalty and the general sense of caring.

• I was 13 when Harry was 11 years old but soon I'd started comparing my forehead scar to the famous lightning imprint on Harry Potter's face. Still rated by me as one of the most creative storytelling of all time, the series shaped my imagination, it helped me to dream big and take all that comes my way with steady humility.

• It was teacher's day celebration of 2004 when a classmate narrated to me the general concept of Middle Earth- of Sauron and the rings of power. Mr. Tolkein with his detailed elaboration called the Lord of The Rings made me want to read more and more and more. Reading LOTR was probably the toughest job I had undertaken(closely matched with reading Anna Karenina, Gone With the Wind and Atlas Shrugged) but when I saw the maps, the family trees, the different alphabets in the appendix of the book, I realized that 'Books are a proof that humans are capable of magic'.

• Around me, everybody or everybody's parents including mine had framed a path for their lives. The path I took didn't feel right then and it doesn't feel right now but it doesn't matter as long as the path hasn't broken me enough to make me enjoy it. That's what I learnt from The Catcher in the Rye. The high school kid sick of the pretence filled society felt like my alter ego. His dream of going the un-dreamt way seemed what I would have wanted to do if I'd have given a thought.

• I raced through The Kite Runner in ragging period. I don't know how to describe how I feel about this story. I seriously don't. All I know is that Sohrab and Hassan, I'd read this book- "For you, a thousand times over."

• And then was Mr. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. I read the book and was amazed at my own maturity at respecting the character. Not many teenagers would appreciate Atticus' willingness to support outcasts. The day I'll be able to do something good for the world we live in, I would thank Harper Lee and Gregory Peck for creating/depicting Atticus Finch.

• It's a book that is hard to find and easy to miss in the book-stands but to me it was the best random book I ever picked. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby flamed my love for music, pushed me to pick up an instrument and also go ahead and explore new artists. The story was alright, the writing style was somewhat funny but it were the songs that lingered and the need to keep looking for the good ones has been imbibed for good.

• Cloud Atlas - I don't know why but for some bizarre reason it taught me let go of someone who'd been long gone. Maybe because it talks about things that are inevitable.

• For this last book, all I'll say that if I would ever write a novel, it'd be of the same style as of Jonathan Tropper's:- 'This is where I Leave You'