Book Review: The Beauty of all my Days- A Memoir by Ruskin Bond

 

Book: The Beauty of all my Days

Author: Ruskin Bond 

Publisher: Penguin India

Pages: 200 pages

Read: The hardback copy pictured above 

Read in: 3 hours 

Plot Summary: So here I am, delving into the past like Monsieur Poirot, not to solve a mystery, but to try to understand some of the events that have helped define the sort of person I have become. Some of it, naturally, is in the genes; but much of it is in the environment, in the circumstances in which we grow up, in the people who come into our lives, even in the air we breathe.

Had I grown up in London or Timbuktu, I would have been a different sort of person, I'm sure. My parents (and those before them) made me. But India made me too. The soil, the air, the wind, the rain, the trees, the grass, the proximity of people-all these things made me . . .

Different things at different times helped to make the individual that is me, just as different things at different times helped to make you, just as they went into making your brothers and sisters, who are very different from you.

'Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself,' said Walt Whitman.

Each chapter of this memoir is a remembrance of times past, an attempt to resurrect a person or a period or an episode, a reflection on the unpredictability of life. Some paths lead nowhere; others lead to a spring of pure water. Take any path and hope for the best. At least it will lead you out of the shadows.

Things I Liked: 

1. Ruskin Bond is always a good idea! Whether it is his fiction or non-fiction! This is the second memoir (of sorts) written by him that I have read! 

2. This book is not exactly a memoir in the strictest sense, it's not linear. It goes from childhood, to his young days and his current life. It flits from one time period to another and it gives you a whole look at his illustrious life. 

3. I love reading about Bond's childhood, of course the colourful descriptions found in his fiction are not the same as his real life, still, even the less than perfect moments of his young life make for wonderful reading. 

4. I love reading about writers and how they go about honing their craft and go about the business of writing and story telling. If you write, like me, you will love this book and reading about Ruskin Bond's writing journey. 

5. Ditto for mountains and all things hills. This book left like a little vacation I took to the mountains. 

6. This book has some beautiful pictures from Bond's life, from his childhood to all the way to present day. They added so much context in this book. I loved seeing these pictures and seeing his life unfold through them. 

Rating: 4/5 

Loved it.