Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books with Shazzi

Shazzi blogs at reader@work. The About page there tells us a bit more:

“I like books, reading them, reviewing them, collecting them, clicking pictures of them, walking into bookstores, and the like. I book blog here and am a reviewer at The Fantasy Book Critic (FBC) blog. You can find my reviews here, on the FBC blog, on Goodreads, and Instagram. I use Twitter to mostly interact with authors and publishers and other book lovers, tend to tweet obsessively about my current reads and upcoming books I’ve been fortunate enough to receive advanced copies of (thank you, kind publishers and authors)…

I read all kinds of books from classics to thrillers to YA, but you’ll find I spend most of my time with fantasy and mythology books. I really enjoy reading books with strong narrative voices, diverse representation, and those that focus on character examination.”

The prompt for these posts was, “what are your All-Time Desert Island Top 5 books? (at least, what’s today’s version of that?)” Some of the contributors took that prompt and ignored it to give something better…Shazzi is the first of those that I’m sharing.

Just five? I can make do with just one. Hear me out as you pick your jaw up off the floor.

I need a book that can give me as many fantasy tropes as possible, and contains a variety of characters. I like my characters grey, and it would be enjoyable if there were tidbits I could pick up on with each re-read. And I have just the omnibus (no, it’s not cheating) for that:

The Complete Mahabharatha by Ramesh Menon

Arguably the largest epic in the world, the Mahabharatha is the longer of the Indian epics, and is allegedly 8 times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. There are prophecies, self-fulfilling and otherwise, instances of divine intervention, more characters than I can ever remember, and even though I’ve read it over fifteen times, I always end a read feeling like I need to start reading the story all over again.

It reveals the sociopolitical climate of ancient India, and every fantasy trope and narrative style you can name. While it is largely associated with the Hindu religion and has the status of a myth today, I believe it is one of the greatest and grandest stories ever told, and make time for a re-read every year. There are tons of versions available, both in academic form, and otherwise.

Give me a copy of the Mahabharatha, and I will toss my TBR into the fire, there’s no question about it. There’s nothing that can draw me away from this story. It is one I grew up listening to as a child, and as I get older, given the vast saga it is, I find something new to relate to, and appreciate. You need to remember, this is set in a time that does not align with our present-day values, but there is still plenty to learn from this epic.

That’s it. That’s the book I need. Not five, just the one.

Be sure to check out Shazzi’s reader@work, at Fantasy Book Critic, or Twitter!

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay