Bee-keeping and gardening

It isn't just research on pest management that has Anil Rao keep his nose among his books.

"If my life deserved an autobiography it would be called 'Merits of a misguided youth'," says Anil Rao, chairman and managing director, Pest Control India. But while this paper may not be the best forum to probe that confessionary strain further, his reading habits certainly are.

Rao uses broad brush strokes to determine what's worthy reading material, from science publications to books on his hobbies "" birds, gardening and beekeeping, philosophy, politics et al. Just don't give him a society rag.

Or for entirely different reasons "" Sri Aurobindo's works, which though "erudite and reflective", he says, "are far too intense to cope with as a continuous read". 
 

Books and the man - XXIII
A weekly series on books and authors people read
Best-ever read	Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts and India: A Million Mutinies Now by V S Naipaul
Most influenced by	Works of Arthur Conan Doyle and V S Naipaul
Airport buys	Business and news magazines

His current darling is Richard Dawkins, who as an agnostic, rationalist and scientific thinker and writer, he'd like to believe, is a kindred spirit. He is currently reading his The God Delusion.

Rao's catholic reading habits were inculcated by a book-devouring father who owned an impressive library that contained everything from dictionaries to Shakespeare. Rao himself is one of those charitable collectors, and regularly transfers his wealth of literature to the shelves of his office... for colleagues to peruse and borrow.

And while he dreams of languid afternoons spent reading under the shade of a tree, as a busy executive he has to make do with cramped seats on flights. At least he has the privilege, he says, of not needing to budget his book buying, "A good book is an unexpected gem but worth far more."