SMJ - Book Club.

Can we have a Game or a Discussion of the week !?

I want to discuss BOOKS which changed my perspective/ made me think.!


If someone agrees or has anything to add - Post Away.


P.s. Credit to Chitrashi for the Title of the thread,.
Edited by nirvanlove - 11 years ago

The book that had the greatest impact on me as a teenager - Anna Karenina - I was given that one to read by my mother when I was 14. I would read the book through the day, waiting for my father to come back home at night and explain the difficult words and then next day morning  discuss the issues raised in the book with my mother.

In my early 20s I used to actually detest my parents for giving me these books at that age, instead of the typical Mills&Boons. Now I'm extremely grateful to them for that foresight.

But what I learned from the book was to question everything - to not accept society and social constructs as sacrosanct. A similar concept was dinned into me with "The Idiot" which I read soon after. Somehow the suicide of Anna and the return of Myshkin to the sanatorium were the biggest tragedies of my young life.

yep there can be a gotw and dotw  schedule,  can you make one,  we can have them on alternating weeks. 

Waaah!!

I thought the DOTW was on books that influenced your life. You think reading incomprehension is a communicable disease? Can anyone suggest a remedy - preferably not a doctor - since I'm allergic to the species at the moment.

OMG. My friend suggested Anna Karenina few years ago. i bought the book, proud - my first BIG book and that too by such a renowned writer.

I read through the first 250 pages anticipating I am not sure what, and then i quit reading it and didnt picked it up again cause i had forgotten almost everything but about Anna being a cold sort of woman, the husband being somewhat weird for some reason which i dont remember now, Lenin/Levin? and the adultery committing brother and whiny wife .. and omg she commits suicide! I gotta read this again. but then again for some reason it made me put off the book maybe cause i was addicted to Sheldon and the fast paced stories.

A recent book which changed my perspective is When a tree shook delhi, i am not going to rant about it but this one book actually reflects on the politics and the games which these netas play and the victims who still fight but to no avail. Its a book about the 1984 sikh riots .. In the year 2005, the Sikh PM apologized to the country and the people for what happened. Too late to be redeemed

Originally posted by: Chitrashi

Waaah!!

I thought the DOTW was on books that influenced your life. You think reading incomprehension is a communicable disease? Can anyone suggest a remedy - preferably not a doctor - since I'm allergic to the species at the moment.

HUH ?!
Totally lost me 😆

Originally posted by: nirvanlove

HUH ?!
Totally lost me 😆

According to Kavya's post, we need to set up a thread taking in suggestions on what the GOTW or DOTW ought to be. Then we need to arrive at a topic for them as agreed by the entire forum votes, and only then begin one. At least that's what I understood.

As for allergy to doctors - not difficult to understand is it? 🤣

Originally posted by: Chitrashi

According to Kavya's post, we need to set up a thread taking in suggestions on what the GOTW or DOTW ought to be. Then we need to arrive at a topic for them as agreed by the entire forum votes, and only then begin one. At least that's what I understood.

As for allergy to doctors - not difficult to understand is it? 🤣

Edited by kavyasam - 11 years ago

Originally posted by: nirvanlove

OMG. My friend suggested Anna Karenina few years ago. i bought the book, proud - my first BIG book and that too by such a renowned writer.

I read through the first 250 pages anticipating I am not sure what, and then i quit reading it and didnt picked it up again cause i had forgotten almost everything but about Anna being a cold sort of woman, the husband being somewhat weird for some reason which i dont remember now, Lenin/Levin? and the adultery committing brother and whiny wife .. and omg she commits suicide! I gotta read this again.

Anna is a book that bears returning to it every few years or so. My understanding and what I get out of that book changes every time I return to it. The first time I read it, I was 14, then reread it at ages 18, 23, 28 and 32. Every time my understanding and what I get out of it has been different. What I find absolutely fascinating is that a male writer could enter into the inner world of a woman and etch her dilemma so well.

Anna is seen as a cold woman by those around her who do not understand her as a person. They project their lack of empathy to her plight as coldness in her character. Vronsky is the first man who offers her what Karenin (her husband) can't and that is the liberty to be herself and a life arranged around her pleasures.

Finally after a lot of twists and turns when Anna does commit suicide, it is seen as a just punishment for a woman who flouted society to lead her own life.

but then again for some reason it made me put off the book maybe cause i was addicted to Sheldon and the fast paced stories.

I myself read Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon much before I laid my hnds on my first Archies comics or teen romances. But I was also reading the literary classics in both Hindi and English at the time. At that age I was just a sponge absorbing everything that I came across, without the maturity or intelligence to process it. The good thng is when I returned to these books later in life, I was less bothered about the plot (since I already had that down) and more interested in the discussions therein.

A recent book which changed my perspective is When a tree shook delhi, i am not going to rant about it but this one book actually reflects on the politics and the games which these netas play and the victims who still fight but to no avail. Its a book about the 1984 sikh riots

Haven't read the book you mention. My inclination from childhood on has been towards fiction.

 .. In the year 2005, the Sikh PM apologized to the country and the people for what happened. Too late to be redeemed

Originally posted by: kavyasam

 

nope that is not what I meant.  schedule for dotw and gotw is common in all forums.  Members signs up to open a gotw or dotw of their choice.  Every sunday the turn changes.  there are no votes, agreement, disagreement of those sorts.     example.  this week it is dotw on books, next week can be a gotw by any member who has signed up  (only to ensure more than one doesnot open a thread)  and the game or discussion is solely the members choice.

OH Ok my bad!!