Lavanya Sankaran's books

LAVANYA SANKARAN
Writer

A book that meant a lot to me?
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight's Children. I read it first when I was fourteen, and the way it captured India with a vivid pungent intensity left me breathless.

How many books do you own?
Over 3,000 and growing. Books are an addictive purchase. The collection is extremely eclectic, as one might expect in a family of heavy readers — ranging from literary fiction to mystery and travel; from the serious to the bawdy; from scientific philosophy to spiritualism to children’s lit. In my study, I keep about 500 books of fiction and non-fiction. Some are tattered from frequent re-readings; others are over 200 years old and the result of trawling through antiquarian bookshops. I guard them all quite jealously.

Last book bought?
Chuck Palahnuik’s Haunted.

Last book read?
Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea.

Favourite genre?
Literary fiction, for (usually) being the best of language and literature; and crime fiction —nothing is more relaxing than a well-written murder.

A book you wish you’d written?
Any book written really well in six weeks or under! If there are such things

A book you’ve always wanted to read but haven’t.
Hundreds of them — and that’s the ongoing joy and adventure of my life as a reader.

An author or genre you hate?
Poorly-written pulp fiction maddens me. Every well-written mystery or romance seems to drag, in its wake, a hundred shoddy imitators.

LAKSHMI INDRASIMHAN