26 Best Books: The A to Z Must Read Book List

When The Sunday Book Club (TSBC) recently published an A to Z list of books on their blog, I was inspired to do the same and compiled this must read book list, which includes my favourite books from over the years.  Having discovered the magical world of books at an early age, I remember eagerly waiting for the latest editions of Phantom, Mandrake and Amar Chitra Katha comics to arrive, not to forget children’s magazines like Chandamama (does anyone remember that? Apparently, its first issue was out in 1947!) and Champak!  Then came my involvement with Enid Blyton, Biggles (don’t remember the author), Agatha Christie, Alistair Maclean, and Hindi and Bengali authors Premchand, Shivani, Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyay and poets such as Jaishankar Prasad and Nirala amongst others.

Our entire group of friends then moved on to Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, Somerset Maugham, RK Narayan and so many others.  Today, I just cannot imagine how I went through the voluminous War and Peace and Crime and Punishment or even She for that matter!

So here's my A-Z list of books, which I hope you will also enjoy.

Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Exodus by Leon Uris

Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins

The Guide by RK Narayan

How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be: The 25 Principles of Success by Jack Canfield

Ice Station Zebra by Alistair Maclean

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss

No Full Stops in India by Mark Tully

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Phantoms in the Brain by V.S. Ramachandran

Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra

The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham

She: A History of Adventure/Ayesha, Return of She by H Rider Haggard

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Vital Signs by Robin Cook

The Wonder that was India by AL Basham

In Xanadu by William Dalrymple

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell

A few more books which come close are Ageless Body Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra, Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, Through Time into Healing by Brian Weiss, Godfather by Mario Puzo, Nine Lives by William Dalrymple and The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy.

Do let me know other books that you have enjoyed reading and those that you would like to recommend.  I look forward to adding more books to my list.