Saint Dnyaneshwar's Dnyaneshwari is his all-time favourite book. It wasn't recommended to him; in fact, none of them were -- he happened to come across them in the school's library. ``I was captivated by the thoughts put forth in the book and the way in which they're expressed,'' says Soman.

``The book elevates my spirits.'' This, despite the fact that the language used in it can be quite demanding on the reader.

But language was never a problem for Soman -- he was confident even when he opted for Sanskrit for the UPSC examinations. Jagannath Pandit's poem Bhamini Vilas in Sanskrit impresses him. ``The style of expression and its musical cadence is captivating,'' he says. A writer's style of expression has always impressed him. That's why he likes Churchill's GreatContemporaries, a collection of biographical sketches of various personalities. But the policeman in Soman gains the upper hand when he picks up Samuel Smile's Character and says: ``It's an old world book with good advice and great thought. I recommend the book to all youngsters I meet.''