[ani_meher]

After the brilliant 'Catch - 22', I started reading another novel by the same author 'Something happened'. Well, nothing happened in first 50-80 or so pages. Just a sad commentary on a office-goer's life in witty words. Finally I took a stop loss and quit it.

Another one was 'Where the red fern grows'. Critically acclaimed, I started reading it with great apprehension. Page after page of a little boy with two hunter dogs, and their countless kills, and every few pages the damn hero cries. Finally couldn't bring myself to complete it, and read a concise summary to bring a closure

One of my recommendation is Panchatantra translated by Chandiramani. The other authors take the translation too literally, even the names are translated. In Chandiramani's case, the author doesn't touch the sanskrit names, and it is a great pleasure to read that version.

Another one is 'Night' by Elie Wiesel. A very engrossing book about Holocaust. But start reading it directly, don't read prefaces or forwards. In one of the forwards, there is a big spoiler which could have been avoided.

[Manoj2268]

Ordered Murakami's Kafka on the shore on Amazon upon recommendation of friends. Lets see how it is..

[TKMCE]

Originally Posted by hellmet

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

I remember readng the book soon after it came out and didnt find it too great. If my memory is correct it was more like a travel guidebook than a travelogue. I got hold of it in the British Library Trivandrum, a great institution in the 1970s, 80s and 90s which sadly no longer exists.


But you can try the web resource "OpenLibrary" (https://openlibrary.org). I have already given details in #911 of this thread.

Open Library is a great place to try your luck in locating a lot of out of print editions or books which are otherwise hard to get hold of.

"One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School" by Scott Turrow was one such book which I recently read. Didnt find it very gripping but it is interesting enough.


Paul Theroux 1975 work "The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia" has a number of very interesting sectiions on Indian Railways including a journey now longer possible-Chennai Egmore to Colombo Fort.

I am trying to get hold of his 2006 work "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" which retraced the original journey.


And if you are interested in travelogues and havent read it yet, the Jules Verne classic " Around the World in Eighty Days" is compulsive reading.

[mallumowgli]

Originally Posted by ampere

- From a language point of view: Nothing like Thomas Hardy and Maugham. Try all the books. Fantastic language. I have never seen anything like that till date (Esp Hardy)

Hardy used to be my favourite during my high-school days till I was introduced to the Russian masters. Even now I re-read all the Hardy classics when I am in the mellow-mood! And while reading 'Return of the native' whenever I reach the 'rain' portion, it always rains in real life also. I've read this book while I was in Nagercoil, in Coimbatore, in Kolkata and in Chennai - it had rained everytime. Happy coincidence!!

[normally_crazy]

Ok since the mods deleted my post where I shared the link to my ebook collection, anyone who wants to check it out can message me.

sigh !

[avingodb]

I recently finished reading Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland. It was in my bookcase for a year before I picked it up and finished in 2 weeks.

I liked her writing and the way she integrates sociopolitical history of Kolkata in the days of Naxalbari with the personal lives of the characters and the conflict between their Indian and American identities.

I think I have read all 4 of her books by now.

[skdking]

Just finished "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid. Great book. Deserves every bit of the loads of accolades it got.

[TKMCE]

Not many are aware that some British novelists make changes on some of their works for their "US Editions" .

Jeffery Archer's First Among Equals was a novel which I had read long back and liked . Recently I happened to come across another copy and decided to re -read. Right from the first few pages, something seemed to be not right. The title was the same, the author was the same but the plot seemed to have some signficant differences from how i remembered reading earlier.

A search in Wiki helped unravel the mystery. The one I had read first (bought from a Trivandrum bookshop) was the "US Edition" and the second time around it was the original UK Edition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_A...ot_Differences



Now this is a newish novel, first published in 1984 and I for one was thinking this customisation was restricted to Jeffery Archer.


Atleast , that was what I thought, until a few days back when I decided to re-read another one of my old favorites. This was "The Citadel" by Scottish novelist A J Cronin. This was first published in 1937 and is widely credited as being responsible for the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in UK a decade later. In India this book was better known for its Hindi film adaptation "Tere Mere Sapne " (the 1971 version).

Now back to "The Citadel". Even for this book , published nearly fifty years before the Archer one, there has been subtle changes. For instance , the first job of the main character Dr Manson is as assistant to Dr Page whose " sister" manages the practice. The "sister" is for the UK audience . For the US edition the "sister" changes to "wife" maybe because wives are more palatable for the US audience!

Yet another of Cronin's novels "The Minstrel Boy" was published under a different name "Desmonde" in the US. Both novels are the same but again the narrator goes under the name "Alec Shannon" in the Minstrel Boy but is named "Cronin" himself in the US version. Principal character remain the same "Desmonde Fitzgerald"

Now I do not know whether US novelists have special UK editions for the same reasons.


But just imagine the possibilities - the latest best seller of your favorite novelist for instance coming out in Indian/UK/US versions.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Hardy used to be my favourite during my high-school days till I was introduced to the Russian masters. Even now I re-read all the Hardy classics when I am in the mellow-mood! And while reading 'Return of the native' whenever I reach the 'rain' portion, it always rains in real life also. I've read this book while I was in Nagercoil, in Coimbatore, in Kolkata and in Chennai - it had rained everytime. Happy coincidence!!

Hardy is even my all time favourite. The sheer poetry of his language is a pleasure. Though I learned late that Hardy was brooding poet too. But of course that is not the topic of this thread. I cant single out one book that I hold better than the other. All are close to me, from literature point of view.

[skdking]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

Not many are aware that some British novelists make changes on some of their works for their "US Editions" . . ..........

I have noticed the same in case of a Wilbur Smith novel.

Perhaps the authors wish to dumb down their books to make them more palatable for the US audiences.

A pity really.

[RedTerrano]

(but still related in my opinion)
We don't have TV. By choice. Instead we have books. Lots and lots and lots of them.
Considering the quality of the content nowadays, I doubt we are missing much.

[Eddy]

^ We do have a books thread, maybe you can be more active there ?

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ok-thread.html

This one is for TV lovers

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by Eddy

^ We do have a books thread, maybe you can be more active there ?

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ok-thread.html

This one is for TV lovers

Wow! I didn't even know about it. Could you please move my post accordingly?

[Piyadassi]

Finished reading War and Peace. More than 6 months of magnificent torture.

Started Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara. Almost halfway hrough. It's not the book but the writer that has it readable.

Also reading Chitralekha by Bhagwati Charan Verma. A search of two 'yogis' the meaning of Sin. Unputdownable.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by Piyadassi

Finished reading War and Peace. More than 6 months of magnificent torture.

Started Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara. Almost halfway hrough. It's not the book but the writer that has it readable.

Also reading Chitralekha by Bhagwati Charan Verma. A search of two 'yogis' the meaning of Sin. Unputdownable.

Aargh, I still have War and Peace unfinished. I bought the volumes from a guy on FB for a very good price and just couldn't get through more than a 100 pages or so. Perhaps a better idea to try on the eBook reader. Maybe, just maybe I will get it done.