I just got around to reading Akhil Sharma's Family Life -- what a phenomenal book. Gut-wrenching and yet so unassuming to start with.
I think that's what the distinction between 'good' writing and whatever else there is out there -- trashy writing, flashy writing, pulp fiction, and everything in between -- really comes in. Good writing leaves an indelible imprint on your soul. It enriches you, somehow. Mind you, I have Murakami and Gaiman on this list too, so feel free to argue about literary fiction at any point in time. Good writing changes your soul or expands your mind, it makes you nobler sometimes, I find.
There's something about losing yourself, immersing yourself in an experience triggered by someone's talent and your own imagination.
On the flip side, there's something about everyday life that forces you to lose yourself, every so often. Not sure how I feel about that. It's certainly not been an uneventful week or two...there's more travel coming up (potentially) and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Bangkok, on a literary junket. While it was an incredible experience and quite surreal in bits, it was also a reminder of how you can get lost, or at the very least majorly distracted from what you want to be doing. Maybe if I spent as much time writing as I do now thinking about writing or talking about writing (the worst of the lot!), I'd be more fulfilled.
Instead, here I am, staring at you.
Long story short: I basically got on here to update a couple of the audio excerpts from my Mumbai launch, et voila! With huge thanks to Suresh Venkat and Denzil Smith, who agreed to read for us.
(PS Drop me a line if you're also rambling, or wandering down similar lanes and bylanes.)