"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad

"Heart of Darkness" is a novella about Charles Marlow, English seaman travelling to Congo, Africa during the time of European colonialism (1890). 

He boards a ship at Thames in London and reaches the coasts of Africa where he comes across Company's employees bad mouthing each other, hating their jobs,  taking bribes and despising everyone. Bureaucracy, violence, racism, killings and disease is common and the whole experience is described by the main protagonist as "horrible and savage".

The novella is written using a huge amount of descriptive words and it's easy to get lost in it. It has a dreamy feel about it as if the one who reads or the one who writes has a fever. It was hard for me to understand who was who in the novella, where was everyone and what was happening. It felt more like a poem or some kind of transcendental writing.

The native inhabitants of Congo were described as scary, savage and barbaric, as if inhuman. I didn't feel right reading that. Just because the author didn't know anything about them and their life, he could have at least tried to go deeper in his thought as if to put himself in their shoes. 

However knowing the ignorant and superior attitudes of the materialistic Europeans in 1890, it would have been probably extremely hard as they judged everything from their own view. I didn't basically like the cynicism and superiority I could feel in the writing of Joseph Conrad. 

It was a very grim and dim novella. Perhaps that's how it was in 1890's. So, in a way, I liked that the author was honest about himself and the reality that he saw. By the way, Heart of Darkness was used to refer to the places that main protagonist traveled to. There was very little appreciation of the landscape. 

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

I bought "To Kill a Mockingbird" spontaneously at a book stall at a mall. I have heard a lot about the book previously and it was on my mental list to read it. At first, I found the writing style a bit archaic and complicated. However I soon realized that actually I wasn't used to reading English literature that much. Slowly, I got used to the style and it became easy to read. 

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee was set in 1930's Southern USA. It was narrated by Scout - an 8 year old girl whose father Atticus was the lawyer. She had an older brother Jem and a friend Dill with whom she would hang out everyday. 

The author describes the events that happened in her town, in school  and among neighbors. She would write a lot about her father who is a very educated but humble and wise Gandhian figure who would be wiser than everyone in town. 

The main event being the trial of Tom Robinson - a black 25 year old man falsely accused of rape of a white woman. The novel exposes the inhumane treatment of people based on their color and asks questions the unfairness and prejudice that prevails even in courts.

Although the novel was written in 1930's South, racist attitudes are widely present almost 100 years later. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book because of the way it was written, I was able to travel to my own childhood, to the places I spent summers at and I loved reading and imagining the lifestyle that people in 1930's America had. I had a sad but warm feeling after reading this book.

"The Best of Arabian Nights" by Young Learners

 "The Best of Arabian Nights" by Young Learners is a tiny book for children that has 27 stories from the Arabian Nights series. 

This is an amazing collection involving: King Shahryar, Sheherzade, The Wedding, The Story of the Rich Trader, The Three Wise Men, The Story of the First Old Man, The Story of the Two Black  Dogs, The Story of Alibaba, Alibaba and Cassim , Alibaba and Marjina, The Story of the Lost Ruby Ring, Naunihar's Groom, The Story of Paribanu, The Story of Aladdin, The Story of the Witch, An Adventure of Sindbad, The Benign Fairies, The Story of the Falcon, The Story of the Ninth Statue, The Story of the Poisoned Pages, The Flying Horse, The Story of the Brass Pot, The Story of Khudadad, The Monkey-Poet, The Lost Camel, The Story of an Ass, Shehrezade Survives.

The stories in this particular book were arranged in a manner that made sense and I loved the neat and beautiful illustrations in black and white that were extremely masterful. I think this is one of the best collections.