My favorite book is Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. I got the book from a friend who traveled to Greece, found a duct-taped copy left abandoned in a busy hostel, and picked it up to read on his way back to the U.S. He told me it was his favorite book, and it quickly became mine as well. It’s a story about travel and adventure, and it provides an insightful glimpse into the life of an artist who becomes a convict. The book begins with his escape over the front wall of a maximum security prison, and his subsequent journey to India to live out the rest of his life.

Although the book sounds like it would only appeal to adventure junkies, one of its central themes involves the main character’s love for a woman he meets in India, the lessons he learns from her, and his difficult journey to find (and forgive) himself. Pick up this book and you’ll instantly be transported to a world far from your own. Your heart will race, be uplifted, and break along with his, but when you read about his torture in prison and about the shady characters chasing him through the streets of India, you’ll be glad to find yourself in the comfort of your own home.