reading habit

Editor’s note

Nonita Kalra has long been the doyenne of Indian fashion—and one of the great influences on its early trajectory—first as the legendary editor of Elle and then of Harper’s Bazaar. Less known is the fact that she is a passionate bookworm. So of course we asked her to take our Book Addict’s Quiz.

What is your most powerful and/or cherished childhood memory of a book?
‘The Catcher in the Rye’ changed my life. As clichéd as it sounds, I loved meeting Holden (Caulfield). He felt like my twin. He was weirdly sensitive, oddly sarcastic, a complete misfit & oh so very complicated. Which teenager wouldn’t identify? But the magic of the book was that I read it at exactly the right time in my life—a period riddled with angst and confusion. The fact that the author JD Salinger was a huge recluse made the book even more special. I felt like I was both the author and the protagonist.   

<As Salinger would say, “Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know.”>

What line of literature or poetry can you quote ad nauseam? Brownie points if you can tell us when and where you quoted it most recently.

“I am worn, down to the raw nub of my soul. 

Now is the time, o bitter beer, soothe my spirit;

smooth mouth of whisky, tell me lies of truth;

but better still, sweet wine, be harbinger of deep and dreamless sleep. . .”

― Keri Hulme, ‘The Bone People’

And I will have to forego the brownie points because I quote in bits, quote it over time, but my inner anarchist always chooses to recite in the way I misremember it.

<Three booze references in four lines! There are drinking songs and, apparently, drinking poems too!>

An author you adored as a child but haven’t thought about in years?

Jane Austen. ‘Pride & Prejudice’ was an absolute favourite. But over the years, I think the several adaptations it has suffered, has displaced it from my mind. 

<Yes, once you have something called ‘Prom and Prejudice’ it’s kinda over.>

Which book would you gift to your new best friend, and which to your worst enemy?

‘The Bone People’ by Keri Hulme, because it is a book that has remained uniquely mine. It’s a quiet book, complex, and the author and I share a love for the lower case. When I share the book with someone I like, it’s a gift of trust. But most recently, I have been gifting everyone Splainer...obviously.

<This is it, guys, this is the best answer we’ve ever had on this quiz, thank you and good night.>

I would love to see a movie/series adaptation of ___________ starring ____ as _____  

‘The Devil Wears Prada’, starring Meryl Streep. Apart from that, I am old fashioned and I really don’t like books being made into movies. Except for Devil, where the movie was so, so, so much better than the book which I wish I had never read. 

<Is it weird that we feel the same way about ‘Twilight’?>

A book review that was better than the book?

I belong to the small percentage of people who didn't love ‘The God of Small Things’, so perhaps those reviews? But I honestly can’t remember a time when I read a review that was so good I wanted to buy the book.  

<Are you certain that this review of a children’s book doesn’t change your mind?>

Which book do you pretend to have read?

‘Das Kapital’, all three volumes. I had my Uncle’s old copies and the font and lettering on the covers were really beautiful. Simple blue lines, underlying this elegant serif text. But I was neither able to commit to the writing, nor to communism.

<No one has actually read Marx. We suspect, neither did his editor.>

What is the first “forbidden” book you read in secret?

My parents took the joy out of the forbidden by encouraging me to read. Everything. 

<Sigh! Some parents ruin everything—including teenage rebellion.>

What’s one of the funniest books you’ve ever read? Something apart from Wodehouse, Adams, Durrell et al would be even better.

‘A Confederacy of Dunces’, John Kennedy Toole. It isn’t “ha ha” funny, but it has humour, and sarcasm, and most of all pathos. I am laughing, no you are laughing.

<And is perhaps the best titled book for our times.>

Send us a photo of your tsundoku pile.

May I send a photo of my Kindle? I don’t have any books stacked by my bedside at the moment—they are all in Delhi and I am in exile from my literature.

<Boo! We need at least a glimpse of that library to assign a score.>

Thank you for playing Nonita! Be sure to follow her most recent adventures in fashion on Twitter and Instagram.