Love Among the Bookshelves

Ruskin Bond's stories have amazed and inspired. But what are the stories which amazed and inspired him? In this anthology, he presents the stories he grew up on, and the inspiration that he drew from them. In stories by authors such as P. G. Wodehouse, whose Love Among The Chickens is the inspiration for this book's title, H. E. Bates, W. Somerset Maugham, Charles Dickens and Richard Jeffries, learn how young Ruskin Bond became the writer we all know and love. Including immortal stories such as selections from the Pickwick Papers, From Cakes And Ale, Schooldays, Rule Days, and From The Story of My Heart, this collection takes readers back to a time where stories where the sole escape a little boy could afford. In doing so perhaps, we can understand where the muse hides, and where to find her. Ruskin Bond speaks out in this part-memoir, part anthology, and tells readers that his tryst with reading didn't begin in a library or a bookshop or even an old aunt's collection of romance novels. He tells them that it began with a week he spent at a forest rest house in the Rajaji sanctuary, and there he discovered something which set the course for the rest of his life: a wall cupboard with a couple of shelves full of books. In these anecdotes, he draws readers into his past and reveals a process hidden in plain sight, yet one every non-writer wishes to understand. How does a person become a writer? The answer Bond gives is simple. By reading, of course. About Ruskin Bond Ruskin Bond is a British-Indian writer. He is known best for his children's stories. Some of his works are: The Room on the Roof, A Flight of Pigeons, The Sensualist, The Blue Umbrella, Angry River, The Parrot Who Wouldn't Talk and The Blue Umbrella. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contributions towards Indian literature and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. He now lives in in Landour, near Mussoorie with his adopted family.