KOCHI: Autobiographies and memoirs are vying for a pride a place in Malayali bibliophile's reading list, says the book shopping trends of 2010. While fiction and poetry kept up a good show, translations of works like P Sainath's 'Everyone Loves a Good Drought' sold well the past year. The fair performance of nonfictional works, like the collection of literary essays, 'Rosadalangal' by S Jayachandran Nair (Mathrubhumi Books) and 'Vakkukalum Vasthukkalum', in which B Rajeevan (DC Books) has shared his literary and political thoughts, speaks well of the informed and discerning Malayali reader. K Sreekumar's 'Nammude Nadodi Kathakalum Aythihyangalum' (DC Books), has almost booked its berth for the 'best book of the year' prize.
Other books that claimed the limelight in nonfiction category are M P Surendran's football book 'Tukal panthinte yathrakal which is a delightful account of the music, literature and culture that flank football, Ravi Menon's musical snippets 'Mozhikalil Sangeethamayi' (Mathrubhumi Books), and Sajitha Madathil's 'Malayala Nadaka Sthree Charithram'. The memoir/autobiography genres clearly ruled the roost with many a noteworthy best sellers like 'Ente Pradakshina Vazhikal' by S Jayachandran Nair (Sign Books), 'Ningal Ennne Congress Aaki' by A P Abdullakkutty (Mathrubhumi Books), and 'Smrithi Rekhakal' by Panmana ramachandran Nair (DC Books), Atmakadha by Gowri Amma (Mathrubhumi Books), 'Sabda Tarapadham' by Resul Pookkutty (Penguin Books) Kadha Thudarunnu by KPAC Lalitha (DC Books).
Surayya Begum who put down in black and white her experiences as a body dupe to sleaze queen Shakeela, in her memoir, 'Dupe' (DC Books) had her share of shelf space too. The scene of fiction, though not able to boast of runaway hits like Aadu Jeevitham, had consolatory occurrences like Santhosh Kumar's Neecha Vedam, Subhash Chandran's 'Manushyanu Oramukham' (DC Books), Devadas's 'Panni Vetta' (DC Books), and Sreebala K Menon's 'Sylvia Plathinte Master Piece' (Mathrubhumi Books). Poetry, thankfully, has not been deleted from the preferences of malayalis.
Even if it was a rather famished scenario, the ones that had genuine stuff inside the bindings were noticed like 'Vijayalakshmiyude Kavithakal' (DC Books).
'Ithra Mathram' by Kalpatta Narayanan, and 'Chilavu Kuranja Kavitakal' by Niranjan also found buyers. Bijoy Chandran's poetry collection 'Nilappana' figured among India Today's best ten books of 2010. The bibliophilic profile of the year hardly had any moments of exultation in this part of the world.
But the weather is certainly sunny over here. The mightier sword is being wielded by promising hands and the battles are wellreceived. Hopefully, 2011 will have conquerors riding, riding to lay siege of hearts.
To be continued