The Bees of Literature
Image courtesy: Pixabay
As a new reader, the world of books may seem daunting. From never-ending options to seeing a new “bestselling novel” every day, you must wonder what makes it worthy of that title. As George R.R. Martin said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
Whether you’re an amateur or a professional, the question of what the next book in your TBR (To Be Read) pile should be is ever present. With avid readers telling you to read a different book every other day, it is easy and common for us to feel overwhelmed. To make this task a little easier, perhaps all we need is a cup of hot tea, a relaxed mind, and this post.
Let’s talk about a beehive - buzzing and full of life. No bee is the same, and with that being said, no bee works harder than the other. With a charm of its own, every genre is a different kind of bee, offering a world of its sweetness and charm. Let’s walk through this world of bees of literature, discovering which suits your mood the best.
Since there is a bee that is only one of its kind, let’s first talk about the Queen bee, the philosophical one, just like “literary fiction”. This is one genre that doesn’t just rule, but is one that makes you reflect, introspect, and even feel uncomfortable in the best way possible. If you’re a charmer who doesn’t need to witness a battleground or the magic of parallel universes, this one’s for you. After all, nothing can beat the quiet that a piece of literature can bring to the darkest corners of our mind. A must-read is “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie, which takes us back to India’s independence, where the stakes were high and survival was the only way of life.
Now, there is always that one member of the family who is mischievous, but with killer saviour instincts. Just like it, we have “mystery, crime, and thriller”, with its maze of twists and turns and uneasy truths, it never lets us sit still. Always on the lookout, it makes us question the truth until the very end. A true example of how the story doesn’t have to end on the last page, I can think of no better example than “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides is a psychological thriller with clues no better than a jigsaw puzzle and how crime is not always about the “Who?” but also “Why?”
Let’s not forget about the one with the knack for reality. A realist to their very core, they are down to earth just like literary “Non-fiction and Biographies”. If you’re not sure where to begin, you can never go wrong with a biography. Whether you have a knack for history or are just in the mood to escape your life for a while, Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” or Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” is the perfect match for your taste. Biographies let us see the victories, struggles, and failures of events that forever changed the history of perhaps not the world but of that single life which dared to raise its voice.
The bees of literature are not yet over, but the next time you’re stuck, these are some genres that you should gravitate towards. So let the bees guide you and read away.
From the Editor's desk
Pari Jain