Deepa Gahlot's bookworld

DEEPA GAHLOT
Writer

A favourite book or one that means a lot to you?
Too many to name, really.

How many books do you own?
Although I am a member of several libraries, I own over 2,000 books.

Last book you bought?
Granta 100, guest edited by William Boyd. It includes pieces by Martin Amis, Julian Barnes and Hanif Kureishi

A book you wish you’d written?
Every good book I read; anything by Toni Morrison.

Last book you read?
Salam Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence. I think this one sees him back in top form.

A genre you dislike?
Cheap pulp thrillers and anything that doesn’t grab me in the first 20-25 pages. With so many books to read, why carry on reading something you don’t like? Sometimes I speed read things I don’t find particularly worthy.

A genre you like?
I love reading humour, especially that of Woody Allen, Saki, John Updike and a slightly obscure Hungarian travel writer called George Mikes. He writes travelogues, which are full of wit and satire.

Your favourite film adaptation of a book?
Guide, originally a book by RK Naryanan, was very effectively sexed up by Vijay Anand. The dhoti clad Raju guide morphed into the sauve Dev Anand. One instance when the film is better than the book.

Most overrated book?
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. A one million dollar advance heightened expectations but I found it didn’t quite live up to its hype. Many other books that have gone unnoticed were better.

ANASTASIA GUHA