It’s the second day of the week! It’s also been a week since the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the the northern part of the Philippines due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Majority of the world is also on lockdown to stymie the outbreak of this ominous pathogen. I am still fervently praying and hoping that it will all work out well in the end. How about you fellow readers? How is the situation in your localities? I hope you’re all doing fine.
That is all for my life update. Now let’s go back to the real subject of this post. Top 5 Tuesdays and their topics are brought to you by Shanah @ the Bionic Bookworm. Do check out her blog, she’s got an awesome one. For the list of topics in March, click on this page.
This week’s topic: Top 5 Authors from P to T
P is for Sylvia Plath (Photo from Wikipedia)
I had other choices in mind (hello James Patterson) but then I settled with Sylvia Plath. She is more known as a poet but her lone novel, The Bell Jar, is very popular amongst lovers of literature. Yes, the theme is quite dark as it has several autobiographical elements but it is a book that I was able to connect with on so many levels. This book’s impact is the main reason why I chose Sylvia Plath over James Patterson.
I am leaving Q blank as I have not read the works of any author whose surname (or even first name) starts with this letter.
R is for Salman Rushdie
Just like letter M (Haruki Murakami), letter R is a no-brainer. Well, not actually. The only reason that I chose Salman Rushdie over the ever-popular J.K. Rowling is that Rushdie has a more diverse set of works (I ‘ve read and loved all Harry Potter books). It was just within the past four years that I’ve discovered Rushdie but he instantly captivated me with his magical and powerful prose. He and Murakami are my most reviewed authors.
S is for Sidney Sheldon (Photo from Wikipedia)
There is quite a lot of choices for letter S – Danielle Steel (my most read author), John Steinbeck, Jose Saramago, and even J.D. Salinger. Despite this, I am choosing Sidney Sheldon who, to some, might not be a popular choice. To understand this, we have to go back to when I started reading. It was his books that sustained my interest, from The Other Side of Midnight to Rage of Angels to Master of the Game, it was his works that made me stick to exploring the world of literature. I credit him and his works as some of the reasons why I have become an avid reader.
T is for Leo Tolstoy (Photo from Wikipedia)
I so love Russian literature. Together with Japanese literature, it is my favorite domestic genre and Leo Tolstoy is one of the reasons why. We didn’t kick off our reader-writer relationship on the right note. Anna Karenina perplexed me, and I found it a bit tedious read. However, I gained a new respect for him because of War and Peace which is a gem of a read. Now, I am reassessing my feelings towards Anna Karenina and I can say that it wasn’t totally a bad experience.
The Pine-Scented Chronicles 
I have read Anna Karenina and enjoyed it well enough, so I’m excited to get my hands on War and Peace especially after hearing you liked it a bit better.
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I have several books of Salman Rushdie on my TBR. Not sure which one to read first though.
Hope you’re doing alright with the lockdown and all. Pretty much the same here, lockdown and curfew from 5PM to 4AM.
Keep safe.
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Keep safe as well. I hope you get to start on your Rushdie journey. Although to be honest, he is not one whose works are easy to get into 🙂 Happy reading and keep safe always!
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Great choices! – especially Plath and Tolstoy. I consider Anna Karenina the greatest novel ever written – so I do hope you change your mind fast about it lol 🙂 I vaguely remember reading The Other Side of Midnight many years back – I probably should revisit it because erotic scenes are what one probably remembers hehe
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Now that you mention it, those erotic scenes left deep impressions, especially as I was just 16 when I read it. Haha. I had a challenging time with AK but it is slowly dawning on me that there’s a lot I’ve missed. Perhaps because I wasn’t much yet into literary classics when I read it so I was shellshocked.
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Yes, that was about the age when I first read The Other Side of Midnight too – so that may explain our deep impressions haha I actually really like the story of Konstantin Levin in Anna Karenina – as years pass I appreciate it more and more – his beliefs, country life, etc.
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I probably should also mention that my first language is Russian so I am completely biased in what I am saying about Anna Karenina 🙂
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It is no wonder. Anna Karenina, nonetheless, was my springboard into the world of Russian literature. I must mention though thay I also had a challenging time with Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago.
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I had a very challenging time with Doctor Zhivago too. The language does not “flow” there for one thing – a strange book both narratively and stylistically.
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