Thursday, June 16, 2005

Tag along

I got tagged by a couple of people. I think a lot of people have stories similar to mine. Voracious reader eons ago, sporadic reader now, wanting to get back to normal.

Last book I bought - Maximum City by Suketu Mehta, Alchemist by Pauolo Coehlo and The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Last book I read
1. Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam
2. Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Books currently reading - Actually, there are a couple I am reading simultaneously
1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

Total # of books I own - Close to 50 non-computer books

Books that mean(t) a lot to me - I can't think of books influencing me too much (I feel jealous that it happens to others), so I am just going to list some favorite books that come to my mind
1. The Hardy Boys & Famous Five series: I read 30 of them in 30 days in one of my summer vacations when the circulating library would allow me one a day.
2. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn : I won two competitions in a day at school and gave the same prize. Gave one to my cousin Vyom and kept one to myself. The book rocks, but its what I did with it that made it special
3. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister : The best satire written. Period.
4. Madhushala : This explained why Amitabh had special genes
5. Freedom at Midnight : Thrilling read for anyone interested in the period related to India's independence
6. Catch22 : Because life is like that
7. Clockwork Orange : Loved it as soon as I read it
8. Lord of the flies : Brilliant basis for the story and execution

The following bloggers have been tagged
Avinash
Sachin
Aparna
Archana

11 comments:

aparna said...

I have been booked-tagged by RTD2 as well! In fact the same one :P

Shall post soon :-)

G Shrivastava said...

Namesake was a good read - I actually liked it better than her short stories, in which I felt she was playing to sterotypes...am waiting for the movie to come out. Hoping it's good!
The Alchemist is fun reading - nice happy piece of writing!

You actually finished reading Clockwork Orange? I AM IMPRESSED dude!!! I couldn't go beyond 10 pages - we had it for MA (I) and I remember jumping at the other novel under that category because CO was simply not my cuppa tea!

G Shrivastava said...

And oh! Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, Enid Blytons (Famous Five, Secret Seven et al), Sweet Valley High etc - LOL stuff I grew up on. Man circulating libraries rock!!! The old man at Dinesh Library (4 bungalows) still recognises me tho it's been a couple of yrs since I stopped going there... :-)

Anonymous said...

Very nice list. Very similar to mine.
Namesake : Very cliche. DIdnt like it.
Alchemist : brilliant. If you like it, read Life of Pi.
Crime and punishment : I havent read it. Dont plan to. I am pretty much done with russian writers. Dont think I can read 20+ pages of monologues about social cisrcumstances.
Famous 5 and all of Enid blyton : they defined my childhood.
Huck : Simply adorable. So is Tom Sawyer
Catch22 : read it when I was in 1st year engg. Was too dark. Didnt finish it.
Maximum city : The guy co wrote mission kashmir :D and he advertises it :D . Anywas thefirst chapter is the best. rest makes for very interesting time pass coffe time read. Too much sensationalism.

Parth said...

Geetanjali: I think once you get used to the 'tone' of Clockwork Orange, you'll like it. Kubrick did a decent job of the adaptation too. We even frequented the same circulating library :-) What are the odds?

Ragini: Looks like all of us have a pattern of reading Famous Five and Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews as kids. I have read Life of Pi and liked it too. Let's see how Shyamlan adapts it into a movie.

phucker said...

Catch 22 - DARK?!@?!?#@?! It's one of the funniest books I've ever read. Never read Clockwork Orange, but I have watched the movie. The movie was good, but it was a little depressing, but good all the same.

nivant said...

Parth,

Some books to add to your 'to read list' (if you haven't read already) (I like the last one listed here most, others are on my list still ;)):

It is not about bike : Lance Armstrong

An Equal music : Vikram Seth

Ishmael : Danniel Quinn

Angela's Ashes : Frank McCourt

The Yearling : Marjorie Rollings

Anonymous said...

*Off Topic*

Hey good to have you back!!

I have been tagged as well, have to find some time soon.

Cheers,
J

aparna said...

hey! my tags up...finally! :D

M said...

Good set of books. I loved the Famous Five Series and also Secret Seven and well....every Enid Blyton book really. Huck Finn, Freedom at Midnight, Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister are some of my favorites too.

Could never finish Catch 22. Drove me up the walls, that one!

G Shrivastava said...

Heheh I've a feeling we probably crossed each other's paths several times on one of our common haunts - I continue to be amazed at how small the world is...the number of ppl I've stumbled across the past few mths with whom I share common acquaintances or other things in common (same school, haunts, areas etc) is really amazing!