Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
NOT ONE FOR ROMANCES AND HORROR
TV actor Manasi Joshi Roy is a popular face on the tube. But what’s popular with her? Books. She loves reading, and is sometimes found reading more than just one book at a time. Excerpts: I’d love it if Vikram Seth wrote my story in verse like his The Golden Gate, which is one of my favourite books. I’m reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I sometimes read two books at a time, so I’m also reading Jhumpa Lahiri’s In Other Words. That’s difficult to define. There have been several books that have been on my best list. Gone With the Wind, Requiem for A Wren, and Rebecca were my favourites when I was in college. As I’ve grown older, there’s been a new favourite every year. Gone Girl, Paris Wife, Where’d You Go Bernadette, and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo are some of my recent favourites. Vikram Seth, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and many others. A lot of good and original plays are being written in Gujarati and Marathi. I like reading different genres depending on my mood, but I’m not one for romances and horror stories. I usually like to read a book that’s related to the place I’m going to be visiting. I’ve just ordered Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast since I’m going to Paris (France) next month. It’s a memoir about his struggle when he was a writer and journalist in Paris during the 1920s. Books that always make me laugh would be anything by PG Wodehouse, especially the Blandings Castle ones, and anything by Erma Bombeck and Robert Fulghum. The Time Traveler’s Wife made me cry. Rapunzel. I was always fascinated by how she was stuck in a castle and had to let down her long hair for the witch to climb up. I was a little bookworm. I loved reading and hated sports. Enid Blyton’s books were a major part of my childhood — The Famous Five, Malory Towers, I loved all of them. I loved Nancy Drew, too. And the best part is, all these books appeal to the kids even today. My daughter, Kiara, has also read all these books and loves them. It’s called The Book of Life and it’s different for each one of us.