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Posted: 13 years ago

#61

Have any of you read James G Thurber? If not.please do!
I SHOULD get off my hobby horse and go to sleep!!
Ab mein shut up hone wali hoon!!

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whatthewhat

@whatthewhat

Dazzler

Posted: 13 years ago

#62

Hurrah! Discussion on books!

Books that I re-read often would include

Jane Austen (whom I do not view as escapist or as writing romance),

E.M. Forster's Howard's End, Room with A view and The Longest Journey

George Eliot's Daniel Deronda

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War and Peace (agree that my reading of AK changes as time passes, I too first read it when I was a teenager)

None of these books has brought about any earth shattering change of perspective for me, but they've contributed to who I am...and it's hard to articulate just how how they've done that in a few lines!

I used to read Haruki Murakami like crazy...I went through a phase after discovering Wind Up Bird Chronicle when I read nothing but Murakami. When I had exhausted his repertoire, I moved to other Japanese writers like Tanizaki etc.

I do read a lot of non-fiction and the one book that's teaching me a lot these days is Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi, which I am finding is making up for a woefully poor high school education in Modern Indian History.

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whatthewhat

@whatthewhat

Dazzler

Posted: 13 years ago

#63

Originally posted by: charminggenie
@znursingh,

See that visual has ruined whatever chance I had for enjoying SR,My apologies for sharing this travesty.

By the way has anyone seen Barkha Dutt's interview with muhammad hanif, author of Our Lady of Alice Batti, he had this sexy and yet charming wit going for him which almost made read his books, sigh had a crush on him that lasted a week.

I did see that and I found him charming and hilarious!

I haven;t read anything he's written yet - A Case of Exploding Mangoes is on my to-read list.

I've read other Pakistani writers like Daniyal Muennuddin (whom I like) and Mohsin Hamid (not so much)

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Purva

@-Purva-

Dazzler

+ 5

Posted: 13 years ago

#64

Originally posted by: znursingh

Edited by Chitrashi - 13 years ago

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Purva

@-Purva-

Dazzler

+ 5

Posted: 13 years ago

#65

Originally posted by: znursingh

Please JUST read just three books by Indians writing in Eng,Please!
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
Read a book by Rohinton Mistry - it had a middle-aged spinster having an affair with a tailor and a hijra, and then there was a leper in it or something. By the time I could understand what was happening and why, it became so convoluted. I actually burned that offensive piece.
Golden Gate by Seth-read NOTHING else by him.
Any of Rushdie's book.
NEVER Naipaul.
Seth I'm going to give a try, not sure about Rushdie. Naipaul, just someone let me give him a solid kick to that ass of his, maybe that would start his brains. I'm sure that's where they are lodged, can't be in the pimple on his shoulders.

Don't like Coelho-never got past the simplistic first one.But I will give both another a shot...at your recommendation.

Reverse snobbery? Write in their own language?
Maybe, but I feel the word "gully" has more character to it than "by-lane", "Mori se nikalti naali" convey a whole picture to us than an "Open drainage from a hole in the wall" And how does one convey the words "jeena" to mean a particular type of stairs, or that "Ducchatti"is similar to a balcony, but not a balcony. One can write about Urban India in any language, but move even to the old quarters in any city and you have to resort to native language.
Rushdie writes better than almost all the Western writers today-my two cents!!

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Purva

@-Purva-

Dazzler

+ 5

Posted: 13 years ago

#66

Originally posted by: charminggenie
@CHitrashi,

Liked veronica decides to die, emotionally draining

I also dont get the sadistic pleasure these Indian writers in English derive at the expense of India.I mean social commentators like Dickens and Thackeray so brilliantly used fiction to paint a true social picture of their times.

Has anyone read the 50 shades of grey, whats the deal about it, seems sex sells in literature as well?

I think contemporary writers would've criticized Dickens and Thackeray too for only seeing the underbelly of a world power, instead of glorying in its triumphs.

50 Shades of Grey - Just looked it up on wikipedia. Is something that emerges as a fan-fiction of Twilight even worth the comment? Can one call po*n - Literature?

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charminggenie

@charminggenie

Stunner

+ 2

Posted: 13 years ago

#67

@Chitrashi,

That was what I wanted to know , how come it became the fastest selling book , seemed to surpass HP as well. I so hate this twilight fandom,but it truely pains me to see it on a list with all time favs like P&P.

For me Dickens was so much more than a social commentary, I relished the way it seemingly innocent story brought about the underbelly, i sensed a sniff of romance from him work.

I adore P&P , dream , desire and lust after Darcy but sumwhere i never warmed up to Lizzy, I always thought such a strong headed character went down a notch as the book progressed. I love Emma just so for the fact that she was ok and content being single in that age and era, despite her silliness, I found her quite ahead of her times.