[Sherlocked]

Just started reading one of the novel of Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner (The Stepdaughter's Secret). I had never heard of this fictional character before until recently when my uncle recommended it to me knowing that I like detective novels. Lets see how it goes.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

Team, one of my close relatives has written and published a thriller novel - 'The Steradian Trail'. Its available in sites like flipkart and amazon.

You know what they say about IITians writing books... hopefully this is different.

http://listcrux.com/top-10-reasons-w...writing-books/

[Eddy]

Guys, any feedback on The Luminaries ?

http://www.amazon.in/The-Luminaries-...ginhydr2649-21

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/books/luminaries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Luminaries

[bond_bhai]

After finishing the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, i am struggling to find another series as good (or as descriptive) as WOT. Any Fantasy fans who can suggest me some books/authors?

[indian21r]

Originally Posted by bond_bhai

After finishing the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, i am struggling to find another series as good (or as descriptive) as WOT. Any Fantasy fans who can suggest me some books/authors?

You can try Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. It will be a lot different from WOT which was more of a Hero oriented. It has some really gory scenes. (I am an extreme liberal and I found some of them hard to digest) You will need to keep track of a lot of characters. The series is complete as well with 10 books plus 4 additional books; The Novels of the Malazan Empire by Ian C. Esslemont

Apart from that there is Game of Thrones which still has 2 books pending

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

Just started reading one of the novel of Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner (The Stepdaughter's Secret). I had never heard of this fictional character before until recently when my uncle recommended it to me knowing that I like detective novels. Lets see how it goes.

I have not read any of the books but did see quite a few of the episodes of Perry Mason. It is a Detective-legal drama with major emphasis on the detection side. I loved the episodes that I have watched

[procrj]

Originally Posted by bond_bhai

After finishing the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, i am struggling to find another series as good (or as descriptive) as WOT. Any Fantasy fans who can suggest me some books/authors?

I have read WOT and Game of Thrones is something you will enjoy. Apart from GOT, I recently started reading historic fiction and some of the books are very gripping. Conn Iggulden is one author that I will recommend. Have read
1. The Emperor Series (about Caesar & Rome)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conn_Ig...Emperor_series
2. The Conqueror Series (about Ghengiz khan and his descendants) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conn_Ig...nqueror_series

The other author who is pretty good is David Gemmell. I have read his Troy Series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell#Troy_series and have just started the Drenai series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_G...#Drenai_Series

Did read the Alexander trilogy by Manfredi but not as good as the emperor or conqueror series

Next on the list:
- Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell (also planning to watch the Sharpe TV series) http://www.bernardcornwell.net/series/the-sharpe-books/
- Warlord Trilogy by Bernard Cornwell http://www.bernardcornwell.net/series/the-arthur-books/

[Blue_V]

Jack Reacher series "Worth Dying For". Its violent/action fiction about the vigilante Jack Reacher. Didn't find it interesting. had big expectations after watching the movie. Very straight forward plot, with almost indestructible Jack.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Blue_V

Jack Reacher series "Worth Dying For". Its violent/action fiction about the vigilante Jack Reacher. Didn't find it interesting. had big expectations after watching the movie. Very straight forward plot, with almost indestructible Jack.

If you think Jack Reacher is indestructible and plots mundane/outrageous, you probably haven't read anything by Matthew Reilly yet. Indestructible heroes, unbelievable (literally) chase and action sequences and the hero doing 360 flips with a double-decker bus (yeah you read that right!), he has it all.

I bought one of his books in-transit a couple of years ago for light travel reading. For a moment, I seriously considered suing him for lost brain cells.

[skdking]

Folks,

Someone told me that Wimpy Kid series is good for kids and adults both.

Any recommendations before I take the plunge?

[Top-Gear]

To give you all a little background, let me simply say that I LOVE books. They are simulation for my intellect and food for my soul. Nothing better than curling up with a good book. Ahh, the simple pleasures of life!

Though I now don't read as much I'd like to, but still the joys of discovering a good read are enormous. I get excited when I discover a new book which sounds like a good read. It could be a friend who talks about a great book that he/she just read. Sometimes, it's pure serendipity when you come across a great book from a totally different genre that you aren't really "into" while browsing in a library or book shop, or come across a good read in and interview of someone who has a good taste in books!

So I thought - why not start a thread for all the book lovers on the forum (and I'm sure there are MANY!) to share their favourite books and authors. Let's talk about which authors/books we like, what is it about them that we like, good books we've come across recently, resources for book lovers, etc

[Top-Gear]

Now that we are through with the introductions, let me kick off by sharing some of my favourites:

As a kid, I loved reading Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Three Investigators'. Hitchcock certainly fired my imagination as a kid and I could picture Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews, Pete Crenshaw, their 'office' behind a trailer truck, etc.

Then Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came into my life. I read up all the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels that I could lay my hands upon. I remember once in my (commerce) college library, I requisitioned "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" and the poor librarian hauled up a dusty fat tome, wiped off years of dust and handed it over to me with an amused look on his face. Sherlock Holmes was (umm, maybe still is?) my favourite fictional character.

Around the same time, I was also into PG Wodehouse. The world of quaint earls and vicars and above all, Bertie Wooster and the impeccable English butler Jeeves was a nice and happy world to escape to.

In the genre of 'comics', two series stand out. 'The Adventures of Asterix' for some great fun time readings. Lot of pun on words of Latin origin which kids may not necessarily appreciate.

The second comic series is 'Calvin and Hobbes' by Bill Watterson. For me, the greatest comic book series ever written. For those of you who haven't read it - PLEASE DO!!

Calvin is a precocious six year old who has a stuffed tiger for company. For Calvin, Hobbes the tiger is a real being, a playmate. What I find fascinating is that Calvin one moment is mouthing (the writer's worldview) sarcastic comments about the world or some deep philosophical view point, and just the next moment, is a typical six year old with the love for the gross and dislike for girls! The quotable quotes from C&H can fill a book. here are a few gems:

"I wonder if you can refuse to inherit the world."

"Reality continues to ruin my life. "

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. "

"The only skills I have the patience to learn are those that have no real application in life."

"You know how people are. They only recognize greatness when some authority confirms it."

"That's one of the remarkable things about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse."

"Why should I have to WORK for everything?! It's like saying I don't deserve it! "

"I don't know which is worse...that everyone has his price, or that the price is always so low."

"So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they're already met?"

"It's not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality I accept."


Over the years, many good books have provided me with 'food for thought'. But some of them have stayed with me. Let me start off by sharing my thoughts about them in no particular order:


1. '1984' by George Orwell

This book is hands down, an all time favourite. The bleak dystopian world of Winston Smith, though apparently far removed from the 'democratic' world we live in, has many parallels, if we think about the underlying issues deeply. The book has fascinated me every time I've read it. As an aside, whenever I read of present day North Korea, I'm reminded of this book. This book has introduced many terms to the English language - terms such as 'Big Brother', 'thought police', etc. I could go on and on about 1984, but enough for now!

2. 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon

This one was a seredipitous find. Something about the book's spine caught my attention in a library - maybe the font, I don't know. Picked it up, flipped to the back cover, and I was hooked. It's a first person narrative from the perspective of an autistic savant - a boy called Christopher Boone who is accused of killing a dog. At one level, it's about him solving the case, but at another it gives the reader a fascinating peek into the mind of an autistic savant. This book was an eye opener - a gem of a book.

3. 'The City of Djinns' and 'Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India' by William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is a writer I admire. He excels as a travel writer and writes about India with empathy as well as the independent viewpoint of an 'outsider' (not that I guess he's based in India, it's a moot question as to whether he can really be called an 'outsider'. Anyway, he loves India way more than many of our fellow countrymen). The first book is a saga of the city of Delhi through the ages. A reverse chronology from post independence New Delhi, through the various iterations of destruction and rebuilding, right back to the Indraprastha of Mahabharata. Nine Lives is about religion in modern India - about nine Indians ranging from a Jain nun in Sravanabelagola, Karnataka to a tantric in Tarapith, West Bengal. This book is totally about them and their lives and Dalrymple's voice as a narrator is barely 'heard'.

4. 'Yuganta' by Irawati Karve
This book is about some of the principal characters of the Mahabharata from a sociological perspective. The book presents these characters stripped of their mythological aura and as humans in the context of their day and age. One note about the author - she must have been one gutsy lady, the first womn anthropologist, having completed her Masters in Sociology from Mumbai University and then her Doctorate in Anthropology from Berlin - in 1930!!

5. 'Interpreter of Maladies' and 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri

One of the reason's I like Jhumpa Lahiri's work is that she etches out her characters (mostly non resident Indians, up until now) in such detail that I as a reader emphathise with them as if they are real human beings. The Interpreter of Maladies, a compilation of some very poignant short stories, marked her spectacular debut. The Namesake is a novel about the protagonist Gogol and his life. It also got made into a film which was good, but in my opinion did not and could not do justice to the book.

6. 'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel

This one's a fantasy adventure novel about Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi for short) as embarks on a journey with his family, survives a ship wreck and stays afloat on a boat/raft with some interesting company - a Royal Bengal tiger called Richard Parker, a hyena and a horse. On a deeper level, it's about life and handling the challenges it throws at you.

These are just starters. Let's have the main course now. Over to you friends!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Top-Gear

So I thought - why not start a thread for all the book lovers on the forum (and I'm sure there are MANY!) to share their favourite books and authors. Let's talk about which authors/books we like, what is it about them that we like, good books we've come across recently, resources for book lovers, etc

Well, you are late only by 9+ years. This thread was started in late 2004.

I started reading novels when I was 7 and haven't stopped since, except now I do all my book reading in Kindle.

But something happened in 1980 that totally changed my world as far as books were concerned. My older brother after long bitter pestering of my dad, managed to order a 25 volume book collection, for 250 bucks. That was a big sum then. It was called Vishwa Katha Kosha, each book had about 10 translated short stories from one country. Some books had stories from multiple small countries. In total, the entire collection must have had short stories from 40 different countries. I was 11 and I was already a fast reader by then, so I finished the whole lot in couple months, much before my brother.

It was an amazing experience, this was before Internet or TV and the feeling of getting so much exposure to world culture gave me goose bumps as well as totally new outlook. My love with world history began then.

Small example: One book was dedicated to Vietnam, mostly about stories of Vietnam, from the side of Vietnamese. That was the first time I thought... wait, so Americans are not the good guys?

[Top-Gear]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Well, you are late only by 9+ years. This thread was started in late 2004.

I started reading novels when I was 7 and haven't stopped since, except now I do all my book reading in Kindle.

But something happened in 1980 that totally changed my world as far as books were concerned. My older brother after long bitter pestering of my dad, managed to order a 25 volume book collection, for 250 bucks. That was a big sum then. It was called Vishwa Katha Kosha, each book had about 10 translated short stories from one country. Some books had stories from multiple small countries. In total, the entire collection must have had short stories from 40 different countries. I was 11 and I was already a fast reader by then, so I finished the whole lot in couple months, much before my brother.

It was an amazing experience, this was before Internet or TV and the feeling of getting so much exposure to world culture gave me goose bumps as well as totally new outlook. My love with world history began then.

Haha Samurai-san, yes, I'm a little late to the party ;-).

You've given a fascinating account of your childhood tryst with books! Thanks a lot for sharing! Just goes to emphasise how books widen our outlook. I must say, I didn't read a lot of literature in childhood. Went into catch up mode only later :-).

[Samurai]

I am trying to get Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series on Kindle for my son. The movie Golden Compass was based on this movie. But Amazon.com won't show me this option since my billing address is from India. Are these books available in any other eBook format for India?

[anandjha]

I am beginning to love Team BHP more than ever before.

Reading Crime and Punishment after discovering that my quota of classics is woefully low. Picked on this one when I heard in 'Suhana Safar with Annu Kapoor', a very interesting and informative radio programme on 92.7, that Raj Kapoor had picked up the story of this novel for his film 'Phir Subah Hogi'. One of its songs 'woh subah kabhi toh aayegi' is my personal favorite. The progress is awfully slow. Averaging just 10 pages a day.