Doomsday Reading List

Last night I ran an impromptu poll on Twitter asking people:

This question sprang from my own thoughts on what I'd miss reading most if the Mayans were indeed right about the world ending on December 21, 2012 (that is today). Now that we've averted doomsday and the world is alive and kicking, we have time to look into the interesting responses (and some justifications as well) I received to my question.

• Freedom At Midnight - @ItsaRipper
• Orwell's 1984...it'll make doomsday seem less horrific - @mirzhaywire
• The Unbearable Lightness Of Being by Milan Kundera - @SulbhaArora
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexendre Dumas - @_sabari
• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie - @rezbd
• Mahabharat - @PratimDGupta
• Kamasutra - @NebuSamJohn
• Tell Me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon or Freedom at Midnight - @sumeetmufc
• Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Or Life of Pi  - @msreya
• Mahabharat or Bhagwad Gita - @samraatkakkar
• Tuesdays With Morrie - @nimue_
• Siddhartha by Hesse - @ramramdas
• "A Chetan Bhagat book so that I will look forward to the world ending" - @JoyDas
• The Quran. Just to find out exactly how misinterpreted it is. - @abhigyanb
• Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram - @mishtydoi
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull or Love Story by Erich Segal - @yearning4d_sky
• Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh - @jsingh_612
• A Year in Provence  by Peter Mayle. Can't think of a better epilogue. - @arnab_das
• The Bible - @shayne_dsouz
• Wuthering Heights - @LizaSaha
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - @bongopondit
• Kamasutra - @RachitVats
• Alice in Wonderland... in the hope that there will be something as brilliant and magical when the world ends. - @ExtinctChicken
• The Satanic Bible - @RatsEccentric
• Tejpal's Alchemy of Desire - @SaaliKhushi
• The Goal - @utopian_sandy
• Cosmos by Carl Sagan - @brouhoho
• Lucy and David and the God Equation - @shashank_singh
• Durbar because it is lying on my bedside - @flirtingshadows
• Mahabharata (unabridged) or the Foundation Trilogy - @pookipedia
• The Little Prince - @Bedatri
• The Inimitable Jeeves - @mad_nad
• Khaleid Hosseini's next. That's what I would regret not having read if the world ends tomorrow. - @Viveklectic
• How to Survive an Apocalypse - @priyanko
• Three Men In A Boat or a PG Wodehouse novel - @shantanub
• Autobiography of a Yogi - @snehzana
• Calvin and Hobbes - @vaishnavibala

After having received 40-odd responses in an hour, I spotted some trends. First, epics, religious books and ancient texts ruled the roost. Second, books falling in the metaphysical genre turned out to be popular on the eve of a potential doomsday. And last but not the least, barring one or two mentions, there was complete apathy towards classics and romantic novels of yore (something I enjoy reading a lot).

Meanwhile, if the world was ending, I'd be torn between re-reading two books: Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Rabindranath Tagore's Gora missed out narrowly.

What would you be reading if doomsday was nigh? Drop in a comment!