Hoori Noorani runs the publishing house, Maktaba-i-Daniyal, Karachi

What are you reading these days? I have just finished reading Mohammed Hanif’s new novel, Our Lady Of Alice Bhatti. A fascinating book with characters and situations that seem to surround us in everyday life, it made me laugh and cry in the same breath.

Also, The House of The Mosque by Kader Abdolah, an Iranian writer who lives as a political refugee in the Netherlands. This is a political novel about a family of Imams caught in the turmoil of the Iranian revolution. Kader writes it in the style of a fable with a touch of magical realism. The story bears an uncanny resemblance to what is happening in Pakistan today and I feel it should definitely be translated into Urdu.

Which books are on your bedside table? Being a publisher I usually have a few manuscripts by my bedside. Currently I am going through Dur ki Awazein, a collection of letters written to Jeelani Bano by her contemporaries over a period of 50 years.

Also on my bedside table are Cider House Rules by John Irving, Majaz ki Batein, Aur Kuliyat-i-Majaz and Broken Republic: Three Essays by Arundhati Roy.

Which titles are on your bucket list of books? I don’t have a bucket list of books yet!

What is the one book/author you feel everyone must read? I think that everyone in our country must read the books of Syed Sibte Hassan, a) to put into perspective the cultural, political and social development of Pakistan as a nation (Pakistan mein Tehzeeb Ka Irtiqa, Naveed-i-Fikr) and b) to gain knowledge about the history of civilisation (Mazi Ke Mazar, Moosa Se Marx Tak).

But for the sheer pleasure of reading great literature I feel everyone should read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

What are you planning to reread? Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita and Ibne Insha’s Urdu ki Akhri Kitab. I do like to keep rereading all the Russian classics that are in my personal library (in the Russian language) from Pushkin to Gorky. Not only does this give me immense pleasure, it also helps to brush up my Russian language skills.

What is the one book you read because you thought it would make you appear smarter? I don’t think I have ever read any book to ‘appear’ smarter but I must have read many books to become smarter or actually to become a better human being.

What is the one book you started reading but could not finish? I always finish what I start even though it might become painfully tedious at times. Usually I avoid books that I feel I will not be able to finish.

What is your favourite childhood book or story? There are so many favourites: all the Enid Blyton’s series, all of Agatha Christie’s, Gulliver’s Travels, Alice in Wonderland, The Coral Island, The Prince and the Pauper, Heidi, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and last but not the least, Richmal Crompton’s wonderful Just William series.