Bookless in Baghdad by Shashi Tharoor

Bookless in Baghdad is a very personal account of the author’s relationship with the world of books. Both that he has read and those he has written. The book Bookless in Baghdad is a collection of 40 essays that he has written in various places about literature, books, book reviewers, critics, and literary festivals. And the role of literature in shaping up the society in general. He begins by talking about his childhood and his affair with books since then. How he used to read a book a day and how he moved reading from one genre to another. It is interesting to read about someone who has literally spent his life amongst books. And who still remembers most details about his books.

Bookless in Baghdad by Shashi Tharoor

One thing that Shashi loves to write about is diversity and multitudes in India and Indians. His famous lines for India are ‘It is not an underdeveloped country but an overdeveloped country in the advanced state of decay’. He almost goes on a rampage to answer people who tend to have a narrow view or worldview of India. Who from their point of view decides what is Indian, and who is Indian? He having spent his life in big cities in India and then a lot of it outside India, and having written about India in all his writing, tries to defend that he is as much an Indian as the farmer living in rural India. Though they may have entirely different worlds.

Indian

This point has been repeated so many times across articles that you almost know it by heart by the end of the book Bookless in Baghdad. He talks nostalgically about his St. Stephen’s days. And then goes on to defend the contribution of Stephenians in Indian literature. In his witty style, he says that he never took any course in writing or studied literature formally. That would be like learning about girls in a medical school. But Mr. Tharoor, having read so much of literature is no less than the formal study of literature.

Favorite Authors

He talks fondly about his favorite authors. Most of the pieces have been written at the anniversaries or centenaries of the authors. He also writes about some popular authors whom he did not find as great. I am sure those pieces would have generated controversy as and when they were written. There are a lot of pieces that he has written about Salman Rushdie. His admiration for him oozes out of each piece. There are a few pieces where he has got back to his critics and book reviewers who have not been kind to him.

In one piece, he has got back to a lady who has written about his Mallu attire in an almost gory way. You smell vengeance in that whole piece.

He talks about various literary events and what goes on there. I particularly liked the piece on Baghdad where people have to sell books to survive.

Publishers

Interestingly, he has been trying to help some publishers who have tried to keep literary traditions high in India. He specifically mentions the Indian Review of Books founded by Chennai-based publishing house East-West Books, Yeti Publications from Kerala, and Oxford University Press’s national integration series. He is sincerely hoping that IRB will be revived by someone. And I hope I will be able to do that sometime, help initiatives like IRB come alive again.

Buy this book – Bookless in Baghdad And Other Writings About Reading by Shashi Tharoor at Amazon India.

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