To be honest, I don’t exactly remember how I came up with the idea of this particular post about books.

It could be the time when my mother was talking about her favourite Bengali author, Sankar – bits and pieces of his works often find their way in her conversations.

Perhaps it was that memory of a nursery-grade me lying with her head on the elder sister’s stomach, listening to the latter read out loud abridged versions of classics like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Little Women.

Or when my father revealed that the first English novel he read was Of Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham at the age of 15. The teenager, studying in a school in a remote village of West Bengal, had been given the book by his favourite teacher.

“It changed the way I looked at books. I was hooked to reading,” said the man who, along with my mother, introduced the elder sister and me to the joys of reading. I was fascinated. I think it was this nugget from my father’s life that planted the seed for this post.

So, I decided, why not ask a few people to talk about THE book which changed their attitude towards reading and the reason why. Two questions were sent out to those who agreed to share their thoughts on the basis of how they interpreted the questions –
Q Recommend a book that changed your attitude towards reading (could be any genre, language, etc)
Q How & why did the book change your attitude.

And the responses to these two questions have not only increased the length of my ‘books I must read’ list but also given me a trip down nostalgia lane. Not to forget the reminder that every book is important, because every book holds significance for that one person who found bits of themselves in the pages.

Here’s what 14 of my book-loving friends had to say about their ‘THE BOOK’