Books you can finally read (and finish)

Quarantining can be difficult for many of us. However, it provides the perfect opportunity to get started on that TBR list. The indefinite time we are spending indoors surely gives us the incentive to pick up those long novels that we shied away from all this time.

IT BY STEPHEN KING

The plot revolves around seven children who fight an embodiment of terror, exploiting the fear of his victims to disguise himself while hunting. The creature usually appears as Pennywise the dancing clown, every 27 years when the bowels of the city regurgitate. The novel starts off with six-year-old Georgie Denbrough's paper boat being washed down into a storm drain before he encounters Pennywise. The story picks up shortly after, as the aforementioned seven teenagers face the wrath of this dark and abject entity, teaming up to conquer it.

GONE WITH THE WIND BY MARGARET MITCHELL

This 1936 classic is the tale of Scarlett O'Hara, a proud 16-year-old when the Civil War breaks out in America and changes the course of time. She uses whatever means she can get her hands on, scampers with little resources, and rises from the claws of poverty. The story proceeds to show how she uses her brains, wit, and charm to survive in a society that evolved against her favours, manipulating her way through the odds.

WAR AND PEACE BY LEO TOLSTOY

This novel focuses largely on the aftermath of the French invasion, inclusive of the poor among the rich, civilians among soldiers, and unfortunates among the greedy. Five Russian aristocratic families are agents that show the changes brought upon by the Napoleonic era, diffusing in a previously Tsarist society. What is beautiful about this read is, it is never entirely a novel. Tolstoy transfuses philosophical discussion in the plot involving Natasha Rostov, a noble boy in war, and the illegitimate son of a Count; effectively giving an intellectual edge to the novel that even non-fiction readers would enjoy.

1Q84 BY HARUKI MURAKAMI

A dystopian novel, the story centres Aomame and Tengo, a woman who has discovered being in a parallel universe and a ghost-writing math teacher whose new project is giving him unsolicited insight on his past. As Aomame discovers her childhood love in Tengo and gets heavily involved with a religious cult, she gets directed toward this journey of self-discovery and unravelling authenticity. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the whimsicality of the novel is what made it fit in this list.

There may never be a better time to pick books like these up. Thus, putting these off for later is not an option.

Aysha now likes her tea and coffee both sweet because life itself is better. Placate her at zaheenaysha10@gmail.com