[Satty]

Some of my favourite books...

1. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
2. To kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
3. The World according to Garp - John Irving
4. Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert E Heinlein
5. Cannery Row - Steinbeck
6. The Great Gatsby - Scott Fitzgerald
7. Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut
8. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
9. Papillon - Henri Charriere
10, but certainly not the least, The Little Prince - [how do you spell it now?]

[Somerset]

"To the Elephant Graveyard" by Tarquin Hall. Very good account by British journalist of a hunt for a rogue elephant in Assam. The book gave me a much better appreciation of both elephants and Assam.

[Baba]

This one made me gasp and chuckle:
Sorcerer's Apprentice by Tahir Shah
India at her best and most terrible... and all you ever wanted to know about those scamsters and tricksters, conjurers and holy men.

[captmahajan]

- gulag archipelago and one day in the life of ivan denisovitch ...solzenhitsyn
-catcher in the rye , salinger
-animal farm and 1984.. orwell
-one flew over the cuckoo's nest...ken kesey
-catch 22.. heller
-waiting for godot.. beckett

[iwanttogoback]

just got 'shalimar the clown' from the library - haven't enjoyed a rushdie book since 'midnight's children' (which I loved), but I have read great things about it here and on im.

just finished patricia cornwell's most recent kay scarpetta novel - 'the blowfly.' I have enjoyed every one of these that I have read, love a good slasher now and then, but this is awful. the story is far fetched even for cornwell and it appears that she is writing in a new style which she does badly. avoid.

[cyberhippie]

Here's a few of my favourites

1. Confessions of a Thug : Philip Meadows Taylor
2. The Snow Leopard : Peter Matthiessen
3. The Drifters : James A. Michener
4. Texas : James A. Michener
5. Third Class ticket : Heather Wood
6. The Deceivers " John Masters
7. Five Past Midnight in Bhopal : Dominique Lapierre, Javier Moro
8. Shantaram : Gregory David Roberts
9. A Million Little Pieces : James Frey
10. The Age of Kali : William Dalrymple
11. No full Stops In India : Mark Tully
12. Chasing the Monsoon : Alexander Frater
13. Complicity : Iain Banks
14. The Wallace : Nigel Tranter
15. Macbeth : Nigel Tranter
16. Travels on My Elephant : Mark Shand
17. Seven Year in Tibet : Heinrich Harrer
18. One Man's Mountains: Essays and Verses : Tom Patey
19. Billy : Pamela Stephenson
20 Trainspotting : Irvine Welsh
21. Five Hundred Mile Walkies : Mark Wallington
22. Bitter Flow The Policeman's Tears : Philip K Dick
23. The Grapes Of Wrath : John Steinbeck
24. Huckleberry Finn : Mark Twain
25. The Greatest : Muhammad Ali : Walter Dean Myers

[Casey]

Quote

just got 'shalimar the clown' from the library - haven't enjoyed a rushdie book since 'midnight's children' (which I loved), but I have read great things about it here and on im.

I have been disappointed in a few of Rushdie's most recent books (The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Fury). I find that when he writes of contemporary times it doesn't work so well, and the fauning over the beautiful woman in Fury was a bit over the top. I think that I may try again with Shalimar The Clown because I loved Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh.

[Yashodhara]

Casey, on Jun 2 2006, 01:33 PM, said:

I have been disappointed in a few of Rushdie's most recent books (The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Fury). I find that when he writes of contemporary times it doesn't work so well, and the fauning over the beautiful woman in Fury was a bit over the top. I think that I may try again with Shalimar The Clown because I loved Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh.

Casey, I agree about The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Fury, they were hardly Rushdie's best. As you say you loved Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh, please read Shalimar The Clown, in terms of storytelling it is comparable. You are probably right about Rushdie's deficient writing of contemporary times, although I had never seen it like this before. Rushdie's writing seems to feed on memories more than anything else it seems. These memories may be blurred, idealized or even completely made up, but they always work in a longing kind of way. From my own experience I can say that the one in exile probably has the deepest and sweetest memories of them all, and that is because he/she needs it most in order to feel cultural identity. The view on things tends to be selective and highly unjust, but in the end it's all about love. Sermon ended, thank you.

[Casey]

I will definately read Shalimar. I find that Rushdie's work is often autobiographical and you are probably right with regard to the memory portion of it. His gushing about his beautiful love in Fury obviously mirrored his circumstances and it was quite over the top. I also enjoyed his short stories East and West, and again preferred the ones that took place in the East. Again, working from memories rather than the present. Great theory!

[batistuta]

My list of favourite fiction novels as well as non fiction

1)angels and demons -Dan brown
2)The count of monte cristo-alexander dumas
3)adventures of huckleberry finn-Mark Twain
4)Rule of four-Ian caldwell
5)Treasure Island-Robert louis stevenson.
6)The day of the jackal
7)Bourne identity and Bourne supremacy-Robert Ludlum

Non-fiction

1)Freedom from the known-j.Krishnamurthi
2)Power of now-Eckhart tolle
3)I am that-Sri Nisargadatta maharaj
4)The prophet-Khalil gibran
5)Krishnamurthi's journal-J krishnamurthi

[SoulCurry]

It's so hard to pick one's favourite books!
Mine (currently):
Yugaant - Iravati Karve
Platform Souls: The Train Spotter as Twentieth-century Hero - Nicholas Whittaker
1000 Miles Up The Nile - Amelia Edwards
Divining The Deccan - Bill Aitken
The Glory Of My Father/The Chateau Of My Mother - Marcel Pagnol
Aahe Manohar Tari - Sunita Deshpande (Marathi)
Anything by Qurratulain Haider (Hindi/Urdu)
Anything by Ismat Chughtai (Hindi/Urdu)
Midnight's Children - Rushdie
White Mughals - Wm. Dalrymple
Anything by Ruskin Bond
Saare Sukhan Hamare - Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Urdu/poetry)
Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan
A Walk Along the Tracks - Hunter Davies
Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams - Ian Marchant
Branchline To Eternity - Bill Aitken
Every single book by Dorothy L. Sayers
All stories of Ngaio Marsh
Judge Dee stories
The Sun In The Morning, Golden Afternoon, Enchanted Evening - M. M. Kaye
All writings of Pu. La. Deshpande
All writings of M. N. Srinivas.
Almost all writings of Max Weber.
The Female Eunuch - Germaine Greer
Tamas - Bhisham Sahni
Manto Ke Afsane, Baghair unwan ke, Sarak ke kinare, Parde ke Pichhe - Saadat Hasan Manto

[WonderWomanUSA]

jyotirmoy, on May 6 2006, 08:42 PM, said:

Yes the Hungry tide is a great read. Have you read The Shadow Lines? You will find the Kolkata I write about there... those days & those times.... & ofcourse those people....

I thought I had a copy of The Shadow Lines but can't locate it. Time to clean out the bookcase, I fear!

[iwanttogoback]

I am about two thirds of the way through 'shalimar the clown' and loving it. after a twenty year break from salman because I didn't like the two or three books after 'midnight's children' it is good to report that this is a wonderfully written book with a compelling story.

thanks to all who recommended it.

[Yashodhara]

iwanttogoback, on Jun 15 2006, 07:08 AM, said:

I am about two thirds of the way through 'shalimar the clown' and loving it. after a twenty year break from salman because I didn't like the two or three books after 'midnight's children' it is good to report that this is a wonderfully written book with a compelling story.

I am happy you like this book, iwanttogoback! How are you going to put Kashmir into your itinerary now? Yes, Rushdie did it again...

[Jezzz]

Yep, May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons is surely a great book, a well researched project and should be read by everyone.

Also, Shashi Tharoor's book "India - From Midnight to the Millenium" is the most amazing non-fiction book I have ever come across about India's recent socio-political history. He works for the UN these days and is truly an intelligent human being. Tried and failed though, to read some of his fiction.

Midnight's Children, Rushdie - most incredible feat of storytelling I have ever come across. Wow. If only I had known more about India's political history when I first read it. But, even though I didn't understand it all at the time, it was still a mind-blowing read.

The God of Small Things is a beautiful, sad and tragic inter-caste love story.

Everything Rohinton Mistry has had published is brilliant! Family Matters, A Fine Balance, Such a Long Journey... A Fine Balance is absolutely devastating. I would love some Bombayaites to tell me what they think of this book because I felt as if I had learned so much about the workings of the minutiae of the life of these unfortunate characters in this city but I have never been sure if it were totally extreme or if it were not untypical for such events to befall people in their situation. Thoughts anyone??

[StellaP]

Yashodhara, on May 4 2006, 10:03 AM, said:

1) My alltime favorite: Salman Rushdie's MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN

Question: I read somewhere that this book was banned in India, is this still the case? Will it get confiscated by customs if I try to take it into the country?

[Yashodhara]

StellaP, on Jun 21 2006, 12:28 AM, said:

Question: I read somewhere that this book was banned in India, is this still the case? Will it get confiscated by customs if I try to take it into the country?

I found the book on http://www.firstandsecond.com/store/books/...tSearch=3856830
So I don't think it is banned nor will it get confiscated when you bring it. Anyone who has different information on this?

[Casey]

I purchased the book while in India and copies are everywhere.

[iwanttogoback]

Quote

How are you going to put Kashmir into your itinerary now?

yes, that is probably a good question.

although I think that there should always be ideas for next time, and the time after that, and the time after that...

[StellaP]

Yashodhara, on Jun 21 2006, 11:45 AM, said:

I found the book on http://www.firstandsecond.com/store/books/...tSearch=3856830
So I don't think it is banned nor will it get confiscated when you bring it. Anyone who has different information on this?

Thanks for this, and also thanks to Casey - I won't have to feel so furtive in customs now!!