[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The Hindus: An Alternative History - Wendy Doniger

If you have not finished reading, then Early India by Romila Thapar would be a good book for parallel reading. Would help in placing things in the socio-economic context

[hellmet]

"A Fine Balance" book by Rohan Mistry is a depressing drag that spans over 500 pages. I wouldn't recommend reading it.

[humyum]

- Biography of George W Bush Junior - Decision Time -

Gives a very clear picture of this man who is highly misunderstood in the world. Loved it and loved his honesty.

- Half Girlfriend - Typical Chetan Bhagat. You either like his stuff or you don't. I like his simple down to earth stories and writing.

I am going to buy this week

- The New Lion of Damascus - Bashar Al Assad and New Syria.

This man is highly mis understood and highly demonized by the western media for manipulating the public. This book gives the real picture of about Syria and him.

[Piyadassi]

..and my Nobel Prize for the best book goes to... Raag Darbari by Shrilal Shukla.

Give us the name of that one book you would have on top of your list. Help us compile a must read list. Any genre, any language, include even regional literature (if translation is available).

First time I had read Raag Darbari when I was in school (Incidentally a serial on the book starring Om Puri was also telecast on Doordarshan). Since then I must have read it 3-4 times.

It's filled with humour - every line of it. The book will shake you with laughter. You would like to read it aloud to the person next to you and, as one by one everyone else join, soon the group would turn into a laughter club. Yet Raag Darbari is a sad narration and tells the story of a tragedy we have turned our country into.

The book is in Hindi. Though English translation is available but I haven't read it. Please do read this book. I am sure there would never be another one like it.

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@Samurai - I bought Kindle Paperwhite wifi, after convincing myself that wait for Kindly Voyage was not worth the reading I was sacrificing courtesy the thickness of War and Peace. Am relishing every moment of reading on it.

[vinay kamath]

President Pranab Mukherjee has written a new biography of Indira Gandhi , and is being sold on Amazon.com from Dec 11, 2014

[Eddy]

... and the brick and mortar stores are protesting this exclusive tie up between Rupa & Co (publisher) and Amazon.

It will be an interesting battle

[Vinotys]

A Thousand Suns by Alex Sparrow - A brilliant world war thriller which made me cry like hell when I finished it at 1 AM.

Rich dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki - Brilliantly written self help book which made me a entrepreneur.

Tao of Jeen Kune Do by the legend Bruce Lee - No need for a introduction to this book.It made me realize that Bruce Lee is a great philosopher.

[poised2drive]

I think I am obsessed with books and it is almost impossible to resist buying atleat one book when I visit a store. I guess I spent lot of my savings on them but never regretted.
And the last book I am done with is - The Blood Telegram : India's Secret war in East Pakistan authored by Gary Bass and what a heck of info it got - mostly from the classified documents from the archives of the govt. of the US , India and other countries.
A must read for the Political history / Geopolitics lovers.

And presently, my eyes and hands are set on - The revenge of Geography by Robert Kaplan, a geopolitical theme again.

[SyncNest]

2014 will perhaps always be knows as the year they opened up bookers for Americans. Funnily however, the booker went to a Norwegian who never heard of before. Underwhelming, barely cuts the surface, to describe this year’s booker.


I mean hello, Americans are the giants of this era (says who? Well, says amazon. Almost all American novels are over 400 pages long). Who ever has the time to read 800 page novels? What are we ? kindergarten romeos flipping leaves out of our harry potter books? Anyway, with good measure, Americans have ruled it. Philip roth needs to be credited for a lot of this. Also guys like cormac mcmcarthy


So, naturally, the booker gifted anticipatory wins to Americans. The other books sounded utterly boring such as the neal mukherjee’s book about a guy returning home to Calcutta, lo and behold, he has found himself. Anyway, to cut a long story short, lots of dead books and some very good ones in 2014


Martin amis’ zone of interest – thoroughly enjoyed it, not a sentence goes by without evoking interest


Ian mcewan’s children’s act – not good. I mean, it does take you back to the day when you first read ‘cement garden’ and could not get that image of the last page from your head for years to come. It does that, this new novel, but falls flat. I love his economy, poise and steady purpose in writing. But this was a flop


David mitchell’s bone clocks – the thing that stands head over shoulders. Wow, what a book. Its genre bending, its mind numbing, it is hilariously cacophonic. It is awesome


Ali smith’s how to be both – I read 30 odd pages. Could not get through it. no comments. Very turgid.


Will self’s shark – haven’t read


Richard powers’ orfeo – nice I guess, not great. I read half of it and closed it. nothing much was happeneing anyways.


So, what were your favourites? What did you like…

[hellmet]

Anyone here have "India By Rail" by R.Ellis and wouldn't mind lending/selling me the book?

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by hellmet

Anyone here have "India By Rail" by R.Ellis and wouldn't mind lending/selling me the book?

The book seems to be more than 2 decades old. I knew of "Around India in 80 Trains", which is of recent past.

Are there any other books published in recent past, about travel on 'Indian Railways'?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Piyadassi

@Samurai - I bought Kindle Paperwhite wifi, after convincing myself that wait for Kindly Voyage was not worth the reading I was sacrificing courtesy the thickness of War and Peace. Am relishing every moment of reading on it.

Just noticed this. I am still waiting for somebody to bring the Voyage to me from US. May be I will read War & Peace again, fully this time. When I read it first and ditched in the middle, I was only a teenager. Hopefully I am mature enough for it now.

Originally Posted by poised2drive

And the last book I am done with is - The Blood Telegram : India's Secret war in East Pakistan authored by Gary Bass and what a heck of info it got - mostly from the classified documents from the archives of the govt. of the US , India and other countries.

Read this last month. Wow, this is something every Indian should read. I knew Nixon and Kissinger were bad guys, but I didn't realize they were so deeply on the wrong side on the Bangladesh war.

After Blood Telegram, I read ‘The Wrong Enemy’ by Carlotta Gall. She stayed in Afghanistan for 13 years documenting the war. She describes how the Coalition partners in the war against terror were fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country. It is an heart breaking portrayal of innocent people caught in the evil schemes of Pakistan ISI.

I had previously read Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill, who focuses entirely on the US side of war. Since Ms.Gall is a Brit, she focuses on the Afghan side of it.

As a long time military history reader, I feel very depressed when I read modern non-fictional books on the same subject. It is like these people have learned nothing from history. They keep making the same mistakes again and again.

[Piyadassi]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Just noticed this. I am still waiting for somebody to bring the Voyage to me from US. May be I will read War & Peace again, fully this time. When I read it first and ditched in the middle, I was only a teenager. Hopefully I am mature enough for it now.

In most of the classics it takes me 50-100 pages for the book to become unputdownable. In War and Peace it was close to 250 pages--more than 100 major characters and over 600 minor ones (got the figure for Internet), characters being called by 3-4 different names in different pages, add to it the difficulty of recalling Russian names, alien context... etc.

But once past those trying pages the scale of the book, the sheer number of events, characters - one wishes to go on and on. I had read on the net that the description of 1812 war with Napolean, which is almost halfway through, is its highlight and definitely it is something unmatched.

Meanwhile, I am also thinking of reading some Hindi novels. The two that I have in mind are Chitralekha by Bhagwati Charan Verma and Gunahon ka Devta by Dharmveer Bharti, the latter is considered to be a great work and unputdownable.

[Traveller Nayak]

Originally Posted by poised2drive

And the last book I am done with is - The Blood Telegram : India's Secret war in East Pakistan authored by Gary Bass and what a heck of info it got - mostly from the classified documents from the archives of the govt. of the US , India and other countries.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Wow, this is something every Indian should read. I knew Nixon and Kissinger were bad guys, but I didn't realize they were so deeply on the wrong side on the Bangladesh war.

I am adding this to my reading list.

I am currently reading 'India's China War' by Neville Maxwell. When I started reading the book, I had mixed feelings about the author's intent. Primarily, because it gave a different perspective about the border issue with China. The perspective is in contrast to what one grows up listening or reads about the China border issue. It relies on documents from the British era and even prior period. And, also post independence policies of Nehru and team. Having been halfway through the book, I can say it gives a third person perspective to the issue. Worth a read.

[poised2drive]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Read this last month. Wow, this is something every Indian should read. I knew Nixon and Kissinger were bad guys, but I didn't realize they were so deeply on the wrong side on the Bangladesh war.

After Blood Telegram, I read ‘The Wrong Enemy’ by Carlotta Gall. She stayed in Afghanistan for 13 years documenting the war. She describes how the Coalition partners in the war against terror were fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country. It is an heart breaking portrayal of innocent people caught in the evil schemes of Pakistan ISI.

I had previously read Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill, who focuses entirely on the US side of war. Since Ms.Gall is a Brit, she focuses on the Afghan side of it.

As a long time military history reader, I feel very depressed when I read modern non-fictional books on the same subject. It is like these people have learned nothing from history. They keep making the same mistakes again and again.

The leaders are just clouded by their 'greedy enthusiasm' who start to eschew any morality/ ethics . And the lesson that we have to learn is that - a leader, however capable and intelligent he may be, people cannot take him for granted . [ mods, please delete it if found politically motivated]

Originally Posted by Traveller Nayak

I am adding this to my reading list.

I am currently reading 'India's China War' by Neville Maxwell. When I started reading the book, I had mixed feelings about the author's intent. Primarily, because it gave a different perspective about the border issue with China. The perspective is in contrast to what one grows up listening or reads about the China border issue. It relies on documents from the British era and even prior period. And, also post independence policies of Nehru and team. Having been halfway through the book, I can say it gives a third person perspective to the issue. Worth a read.

You would never regret .

Regarding the Indo-Chinese war, 'Himalayan Blunder' is a book that puts a perspective from the Indian army side [ who were continuously on collision course with the Indian Govt. ] and we will get to know how the officers on the filed felt.