Page 16 - Books
Six books that you should have read already
Books that do what great literature promises - keep you engrossed and make you think
For the love of reading
At first glance, it is not much of a library: two shelves of about 1,600 books and magazines in a basement room deep into a dusty alley of adobe homes in rural Panjwai District, in southern Afghanistan. The mattresses and blankets stacked in the corner still give the vibe of the guest quarters the room once was.But the register shows how parts of the community here, particularly younger residents, have come to value any chance to indulge their curiosity, in a place that was at the heart of the original Taliban uprising in the 1990s and became a watchword for the tragedy and deprivation brought by war.Hassanullah, 18, checked out General History. Muhammad Rahim, 27, came for The Fires of Hell, which he returned the next day; it was soon borrowed by a 12-year-old named Nabi. Taher Agha, 15, preferred Of Love and the Beloved, keeping it for 10 days. Another young man, about to marry, called ahead to make sure there was a copy of Homemaking. He rode his bicycle six miles to pick it up.The