Popular authors reveal their favourite books

English author Jeffrey Archer has fascinated readers worldwide with his books. But which books does he enjoy reading the most? Recently, when the author was asked about his favourite reading list, he shared five books that immediately came to his mind. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan, The 39 Steps by John Buchan, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig were mentioned as his favourite books in a post on his official Facebook page.
(Pic Credit: Jeffrey Archer/ via Facebook)

Author of 15 books, Member of Parliament and former bureaucrat, Dr Shashi Tharoor is said to be an "eclectic reader". So in a recent interview when we asked Dr Tharoor to tell us his personal favourite books and the ones which he would recommend others to read, no wonder, his list was endless! "Gosh, there are too many! I still enjoy the classics, from the Mahabharata to Shakespeare, from Kalidasa to Dickens. I’m a rather eclectic reader who loves P.G. Wodehouse and Gabriel Garcia Marquez almost equally. And there’s terrific work being done by a lot of Indian writers, both in English and in Indian languages (which are benefitting from increasingly readable translations). There’s just so much to read that you can’t go wrong wherever you start!," he said.
(Pic: Getty Images)

Best-selling children's book author J.K Rowling shared that Jo March from Little Women is her favourite literary character, when she was asked about it in an interview. "It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer," Rowling told the New York Times.
(Pic: Associated Press)

"Topic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Miller is the writer who gave me the initial stimulus to write... Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. I read one of Borges’ short stories in a science-fiction magazine when I was 20, and I immediately fell in love with his style and his universe... Or I’ll Dress You in Mourning by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins... Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado... The Stranger by Albert Camus- I read it in my 30s and was fascinated by Camus’ simple and direct language... 1984 by George Orwell- was impressed by its visionary quality," Paulo Coelho revealed to The Week. Coelho is best known for his books The Alchemist, Veronica Decides To Die, among others.
(Pic: Paulo Coelho/Facebook)

Man Booker Prize winning author Aravind Adiga shared that he is impressed with Arjun Subramaniam's book India's Wars. In an interview with The Times of India, he said, "Over the past few years, I've made a concerted effort to read novels that were originally written in three Indian languages — Kannada, Tamil, and Marathi. How can one not admire the intelligence and daring of writers like S L Bhyrappa and Vijay Tendulkar?... This is not to say we don't have extremely fine writers in English; I admire Adil Jussawalla, Amitav Ghosh, and Ram [Ramachandra] Guha very much. Excellent new writers are always emerging, and often from unexpected places. Air vice-marshal Arjun Subramaniam's 'India's Wars' has impressed me with its lucid analysis of our military conflicts with Pakistan and China."
(Pic: Aravind Adiga/ Facebook)

Talk show host, actress, producer and philathropist, Oprah Winfrey has also penned down books which includes a memoir. When asked about her 10 favourite books from the 2000s in an interview in O Magazine, she mentioned these: Discover the Power Within You by Eric Butterworth, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Night by Elie Wiesel, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and The Known World by Edward P. Jones.
(Pic: Oprah Winfrey/Facebook)

American author Stephen Edwin King is best known for writing contemporary horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. Talking about his favourite books, the author had shared on social media sometime back, "Herman Koch is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers. His 3 novels, taken together, are like a killer EP where every track kicks ass."
(Pic: Stephen King/Facebook)

"My favourite authors include Ernest Hemmingway, George Orwell and Charles Dickens who have been my role models. (Of these) Orwell's Animal Farm (is one of my favourites). I've read Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea many times over but I like his speeches more than his books. Then there's Dickens' Oliver Twist and Great Expectations of course. I also like Jane Austen... Her Pride and Prejudice plot is standard (in stories/films these days). Amongst contemporaries I read everything," he said an interview to Rediff.com a few years ago.
(Pic: Chetan Bhagat/ Website)

Popular Indian author Madhuri Banerjee is an avid reader. No wonder then that she's got a long list of favourite books. Some of personal favourites include The Way Things Were- Aatish Taseer, Big Magic- Elizabeth Gilbert, Before We Visit the Goddess- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Lowland- Jhumpa Lahiri. Gulzar, Honour- Elif Shafak, Jazz- Toni Morrison, The Namesake- Jhumpa Lahiri, Ithaca- David Davidar, The Forty Rules of Love- Elif Shafaq, Eat Pray Love- Elizabeth Gilbert, Veronica Decides To Die- Paulo Coelho, The Palace of Illusions- Chitra Banerjee, Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden, Perfume- Patrick Suskind, and Macbeth- Shakespeare.
(Pic: Madhuri Banerjee/ Facebook)

Twinkle Khanna aka Mrs Funnybones is an avid reader, is no news. In fact she frequently posts about the books she is reading with her followers on social media. Getting back to reading, she shared on social media sometime back, "Tender Is the Night has been one of my favourites, but I just never got around to The Great Gatsby. Time to begin #books". In other post on Instagram, sharing a picture of a signed copy of Ken Liu's book she had written,"As fate would have it-connections across continents-Have read almost everything he has ever written #KenLiu".
(Pic: Twinkle Khanna/Instagram)

“When I was growing up, my house was filled with books...I gravitated to Judy Blume early on. ‘Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing’ was my favorite, with a realistic and relatable protagonist in Peter Hatcher. When I reached the fourth grade, I made the leap to science fiction and never looked back. I knocked down Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, Terry Brooks’s Shannara series, and (deep breath) J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series one by one... But looking back, I realize my favorite stories weren’t in books, they were in comics," Jeff Kinney said on being asked about his favourite books as a child in an interview by the New York Times. He is famous for penning the Wimpy Kid series.
(Pic: Wimpy Kid/ Website)

Author George RR Martin, of Game of Thrones fame, shared the books which have inspired him in one of his blog posts. And he's got a long list of books and writers he likes! "A Song of Ice and Fire draws as much on the traditions of historical fiction as it does on those of fantasy, and there are many great historical novelists, past and present, whose work helped inspire my own. Sir Walter Scott is hard going for many modern readers, I realize, but there's still great stuff to be found in Ivanhoe and his other novels, as there is in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's White Company (he write more than just Sherlock Holmes). Thomas B. Costain (The Black Rose, The Silver Chalice) is another writer worth checking out, along with Howard Pyle, Frank Yerby, Rosemary Hawley Jarman. Nigel Tranter (his Bruce and Wallace novels are the best, maybe because they are the only ones where his heroes actually win, but I found the lesser known lords and kings equally fascinating)...Sharon Kay Penman, Steven Pressfield, Cecelia Holland, David Anthony Durham, David Ball, and the incomparable Bernard Cornwell are writing and publishing firstrate historical fiction right now, novels that I think any fan of A Song Of Ice And Fire would find easy to enjoy," he wrote on his personal blog.
(Pic: Getty Images)
(Compiled By: Surabhi Rawat)