Reading, A Reminiscence

I have to thank my friend Sreekanth for getting me into this reading habit, I still fondly remember our many trips to the second hand book shops across the city for old Reader's Digest and other books. There was this special shop opposite Shanti Theater that specialized in - you know what! Just walking that stretch on Mount Road - from Bata store (Anna Statute) to the Post Office was exhilarating. I can still remember the cold water that used to drip from the ACs of offices above the pavement. There was this book stall opposite Bata which used to sell colorful but mostly useless imported books.
We have shared many books during those tumultuous, acne riddled, voice breaking adolescent years. Kane and Able was one such great book that we enjoyed reading (I still believe that Sreekanth’s business acumen is driven by this book). I also remember reading Ken Follet (again from Sreekanth), and when I was half way thru this book, Indira Gandhi got assassinated, I was moved to know from somewhere that Indira Gandhi’s last read was also a Follet; although a diff title.
I used to thrive on popular fiction before I moved into a dry phase of no reading and then into the recent dry world of non-fiction. Like many, I started my fiction reading with the slightly-above- trash, dime novel fame detective Nick Carter aka Killmaster and the various feasts of James Hadley Chase (made popular by Junior Vikatan through Tamil translation) , with more than a slight hint of 007ish sex and action this was like "ho... my God". The natural progression was to move on to Harold Robbins, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer, Ken Follet, Fedrick Forsith, Aurther Hailey, Alister Maclean, Irwin Wallace, etc. each writer had a style of his own, so normally you start an author read as many books as possible from his stable and move on to the next.
The details that Aurther Hailey could get into was really wonderful, who could forget his works Airport, Money Changers and Hotel? They were extraordinary. Later, he wrote overload, which lead me to think that it was written by Harold Robbins but credit given to AH. HR was great read, my roommates used to take it to the bathroom for some literary inspiration! But, some of his books were really good, like a Stone of Danny Fisher and Memories of Another Day! The Carpetbaggers was a saga in print, notwithstanding the NYT review that stated “It should have been inscribed on the walls of a public lavatory." when the book was published in 1961. Betsy is probably the best trash written by him (or read by me); my roommates had reservations on this book! I recently got hold of this book to go down memory lane...sadly, the old magic was missing, but it was a good trip.
I started reading fiction again (as I am at home these days, which is also the reason why I am writing this piece) but I could not really enjoy the writings of Dan Brown (too absurd and really insults the intelligence of the reader, if you ask me), John Grisham, was fine initially for the first one or two books, but too much of Mississippi and surely too much of the attorneys. Robert Ludlum, again, was too much of WW2 and found it very repetitive, so much so, that I become very familiar with the geography of Moscow and its Bolshoi Theater, Moskva River , Triumphal Arch (what is with Arches and military victories?) and many other landmarks!