[adultcheee]

Here are my recommendations on travelogues :

Paul Theroux's The Great Patagonian Express
Paul Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster
Peter Mathiessen's The Snow Leopard ....lots of Buddhist philosophy..riveting..
Dervla Murphy's On a Shoestring to Coorg .This Irish woman has also written about her adventures in the Andes,Ethiopia.
Norman Lewis's The Goddess in the Stones
Geoffrey Moorhouse's OM - An Indian Pilgrimage ....writes about our own Madras,Pondicherry..
Other great travelogue writers are Bruce Chatwin,Jonathan Raban,Eric Newby.
Rushdie has written about his travels in the Central American country of Nicaragua. I think it's titled "Jaguar's Smile".
Check them out.

[Nwxffgke]

Hello
Those are excellent reco's,to add a few more
Strongly recommend
KMMunshi's Krishnaavatara(Vol 1 to Vol 7) available at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan bookstores and several big bookstores all over india.It's an amazing narration of Lord Krishna's life and the life and times of all others in a really human point of view.I have learnt a lot about diplomacy and decision-making from these volumes.
2."magnificient obsession" by Lloyd C Douglas

[ResuNezily]

Topic suggested by Ramanan on Wed Aug 26 12:07:27 .


we the people who read a lot will have our favourite ones.

How about listing them irrespective of what category the book falls into and if possible state why you liked the book ? Ofcourse for Science Fiction and Fantasy, we go to the SF & F forum.

The idea is to get to know good books so that the next time we go to a library or bookshop we know what to look for.

[denSmumbSes]

I see kanchana has mentioned carl sagan's Cosmos.
I have read read that book atleast two times - A very good one. A few other carl sagan's work worth reading

Dragons of Eden
Braco's brain

[popillio]

What about "On Human Bondage - Somerset Maugham ? the title itself deserves credit and none of the novel I have read describes unrequited love and intense obsessions with such passion.
Vikram Seth's novel "The suitable Boy" is the best book I have read, its huge some 1300 pages but I have read it in full four times and in parts a zillion times. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND EVERYBODY TO READ IT.
Arundhati's God of Small Things is brilliant of course ( in spite of certain unacceptable elements in the end ), but compared to vikram she pales. I would like to talk to someone who has read the book.
The Seven Minutes- Irving Wallace
The Three Sirens - Irving Wallace
...
more later
more later ...

[SOgLak]

though most of you have suggested Arundathi Roy's
GOST (ghost!! heh) I still dont find it amusing cos as far as every asian goes, it is the story of his grandparents or great grand parents in their village!!!
It may have fascinated the Europeans and Americans as this story is something new to them. I personally feel that 'The God of small things' is commendable only for its excellent use of the English language written by a good interpreter of Indian lifestyle!!!
I'm a fan of Ayn Rand too : I suggest 'We the living' by her. It is a pessimistic point of view of life

[kilibry]

Sorry for the typos :

It should be Futurological Congress .

[ayWCZ7VT]

that reading "catcher in the rye" story about Mark Chapman is so much hyped up that people associate Chapman with Holdfield (is that is name?) ....
and actually one of Sartre's story called Erostratus comes very close to Salinger's prototype protaganist.... and Salinger I agree was not as much of a philosopher as Sartre but they I believe thought on similar lines....
Mark Twain and Salinger? Clarify bb..

Vijay

[Unoloknovagog]

bb: I read the review of "an equal music" in the Newyorker magazine. From the review the book
does not sound to be very promising.

[Waymninelia]

Thanks Udhaya....
I'm going to try them

Do you have any recommendations for books of the genre of Salinger (whatever it's called) ...
Does jean Paul sartre fall in this category for I found a striking similarity in their works...?

Vijay

[Seiblybiozy]

NOV - The Second Lady was one of the first novels I read. Probably it might be the reason why I chose it. Of course, Irving Wallace's The Prize, The Almighty, The Word were equally good.

[Tactattcahhaw]

udhaya, maya angelou padichchirukkeengaLA?

[jojocomok]

I'd like to recommend "Possession" by A.S.Byatt. Excellent book with complex gripping characters. Supposedly a romance (the title itself says so) but I'd like to call it a literary romance.

[maxtp]

Hi all.
To me the books that affected me pretty deeply are ;
- The Razors Edge - Sommerset Maughman
excuse me fro the spelling
- Unbearbale Lightness of being - Milan Kundera
Damn good book. Must read
- Sidhartha - Herman Hesse....another brilliant stuff....

But for satire and comedy I love Kurt Vonnegut Jr....amazing stories.....Like the Sirens of the Titans for example.....

vk

[TypeTeasiaDer]

I second Gokul's recommendation of Roald Dahl's short stories. Presently I am reading a collection of essays by J. B. Priestly, fifty years of essays. I just coudln't help grinning throughout some of the pieces. I recommend it for days you aren't in the mood for a long read. .

[igs00r]

Udhaya, great selection!
Krishnan/ Kanchana:
I remember seeing a famed Kubrick film titled "Clockwork Orange"? Is it based on the same story?

Anyone for Thurber? or Somerset Maugham?

Travelogues: Have u read William Darlymple's "City of Djinns"? a quite amusing view of how Delhi does (or does not) work!

[MaickiP]

bb,
I've read some of Angelou's poems, they're simple and elegant. I especially remember the one she wrote about a black boxer becoming the first heavy weight champion of the world(Joe Lewis I think) it is memorable. Some of her narrative poems were refreshingly personal and feminine. She has this nourishing quality about her writing that I love.

In the above list I forgot a very important person!
I can't believe I forgot him!

Ralph Ellison
Ellison was a literal unknown when he published his seminal novel Invisible Man in the 50s. The novel eventually won the National Book award and has become the testament to the social irrelevance many blacks feel in America. Even beyond race and class, the novel exquisitely articulates the displacement of man in his search for meaning, relevance and a sense of belonging. Definitely one to reflect upon, the novel makes its point with gentle grace.

[LINETFAD]

Krishnan - Second Lady? ))))))))))))))))))

Glad you enjoyed the book as much as I did. But it's full of coincidences, cliches and a worn-out ending. But I enjoyed it all the same, wondering whether Kamal was going to make it a Tamil movie. It certainly has the basics - the double act, I mean. )

[gundorana]

hi
looking at the amount of talk on magic realism, the most magic realism i have seen is in gabriel's
"The Autumn of the Patriarch"
Highly recommended

[AnIInWon]

my humble recommendations....

(1)Franny and Zooey
-will make you realise that there are people who think like you

(2)Autumn of the Patriarch - Marquez-
if One hundred.... is his tour de force in magic realism what do you call this? Half way through I got so submerged in the intense "magic realism"
that for a week or so i was thinking like the Patriarch...

(3) To Build a Fire and other stories - Jack London, just when I was wondering if any author rather than taking you into his world to explain his ideas , would sit with you and explain the brutality of existence, I read this book.
Extremely short stories, deep impact....

(4) Anna Karenina - this book is life , down-to-earth life and all its forms and emotions
it takes a month to wade through this book....

(5) The Book of Laughter and Forgetting -
In my opinion, Kundera's most intricate book, So many concepts, so many images.... I think this book has least of Kundera's normal self-obsessed rambling....

5 is all I have now.....