Inside SRK's library

Inside SRK's library

By far, the wittiest and the most well-informed actor in B-town, Shah Rukh Khan is an enigma to many. That his wit is legendary and he makes great copy is known to most. What not many know is that this King of Bollywood maintains one of the most well-stocked libraries at Mannat. He is always absorbing... not just from his environment and experiences but also from books that he picks up every now and then.

Of his book shopping , the voracious reader says, "I read anything and everything... I read three or four books at a time. I go to bookstores when I'm in London or America. I get a coffee and keep browsing for hours"something I can't do in India. I come back home with a bagful of books. I'm always stopped at customs as they think I'm carrying some heavy electronic items!"

We've managed to collate some from his really long list of favourite reads:

The Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy " Douglas Adams

Artemis Fowl series " Eoin Colfer

Dan Brown's books " Dan Brown

Why Men Don't Listen And Women Can't Read Maps " Allan Pease, Barbara Pease

Books on Kabbalah " Daniel C Matt, Various

The Five People You Meet in Heaven " Mitch Albom

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time " Mark Haddon

Adrian Mole books " Sue Townsend

Entire Woody Allen collection " Woody Allen

Fatherhood " Bill Cosby

Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone " Eduardo Galeano

The Subterraneans " Jack Kerouac

The Dark Tower " Stephen King

Tough Heaven " Jack Gilbert's collection of poems

The Hollow " Nora Roberts

Harry Potter " J K Rowling

A Room of One's Own " Virginia Woolf

Shakespeare's Sonnets " Shakespeare

The Lightning Thief " Rick Riordan

Phrynette Married " Marthe Troly-Curtin

The Idiot " Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Outliers " Malcolm Gladwell

Chancers " Damian Lanigan

So, how does SRK pick his books? "There are these charts, the popular, top ten charts? Whatever I see topping on them, say, the New York Times bestseller charts, I buy those books when I am moving in and out of the airports. And loads of times, it is these kind of books that make it to the top seller position," he shares in an interview with The Times of India. "Of course, I normally don't finish them, but I do skim through them. Because I like to know how and what people write and more than that, I am interested in knowing what people are reading."

The actor, producer, television personality and philanthropist just likes to read. "I read anything, from comics to popular fiction to pulp... everything. Now, I even have a kindle, and so I can have thousands of books in them. So now, even when I am in the plane, I open my kindle and read."

Does he have any favourite authors? "I like what Dan Brown writes, it also helps me understand certain aspects of the religion that he writes about, so that's good. And besides that, ya, of course, I always pick up a Harry Potter for the kids," says he. "My favourite is Artemis Fowl, I don't know if you've heard about it. And I looked forward to books by Douglas Adams when he was alive." He also enjoyed reading The Outliers.

The super-busy actor uses all his waking hours. When he's injured, he uses that time too, to catch up on his reading. He reads "anywhere - in the car, in the plane, in the bathroom, in the bed ... I read everywhere. I read three books at the same time".

No wonder the world loves Shah Rukh Khan. For the habit and the eclectic reading mix truly maketh the man, the star and the thinker.