Its been a long long time since I have read books on a regular basis. I have always had this guilty feeling that I no longer read much. But the taggie thingie going on motivated me so much that I actually went to the library to get the books I have been wanting to read for a long time, 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Life of Pi'. Unfortunately, all the copies of both the books were out. Hopefully I get them soon. If not, because of this book tag going around so much, I have come across many titles which has been added to my 'to read' list. Isn't this an awesome activity?
Total Number of Books I Own -
Four. Three of which I had brought with me from India and one is actually V's. Of course, back home in India, I have innumerable books which I collected since childhood. Books I received as prizes in school and as gifts. I don't remember buying any book in particular. I never had the need as we own a book shop. So, I always got to read many many books without the need to buy. Whichever book that I felt need to be in my collection, I simply 'took' it.
The Last Book I Bought -
Stranger Stories by Satyajit Ray and Modern Indian Short Stories. Both of these I had bought for the flight from India. I love reading short stories, be it the ones we had in our school syllabi, ones by O' Henry, Jeffrey Archer, W. Somerset Maugham or just a collection of stories by various authors. I love the twists in the Jeffrey Archer and S Maugham stories. Probably one of the reason why I enjoy reading stories written by my blog friends so much.
The Last Book I Read -
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Well, this book needs no introduction. I found the research done and the pace of the book amazing and unputdownable. I enjoyed Deception Point too. After reading these, I am so looking forward to read The Da Vinci Code. I am going the reverse way - people normally read DVC first, then Angels and Demons and then Deception Point. My path was exactly reverse! :-)
Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me -
As most of us feel, five is a very small number to list all the books the we love. I read only fiction, so as such I have no 'life changing' book that I am very close to. Books that mean a lot to me are the ones I grew up with. As with most of us, it started with Enid Blyton's books. The first books I remember to have read (apart from school books, nursery rhymes other 'learning' books) are the Noddy series. How I used to pester my dad to take me to our shop so that I could get the next 2 Noddy books (I was allowesd to take only 2 at a time).
From Enid Blyton's kiddo books I transitioned to more 'mature' Hardy Boys, The Three Investigators and then Nancy Drew. From then I moved on to Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and her dear Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series and the Perry Mason series.
About then I also started reading classics like Dickens, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy etc. Its been so long ago that I read all these classics, I sometimes think of reading them all over again. During the early stages of reading classics, I remember being touched by the story of The Little Princess. I was so excited when, after a few years, I got to see a movie based on that story.
A few books that my dad suggested me to read were Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, To Sir With Love, Farewell to Arms and To Kill A Mocking Bird. I dont think I need to mention how beautiful each of these are.
The next set of books that I love are plays by Shakespeare. Of them all, I have read three in quite detail - The Merchant of Venice, Julius Ceasar and Twelfth Night or What You Will. I had these in my school curriculum from 8th till 12th std. Julius Ceasar was the toughest of all. But, having these books in my syllabus helped me get interested in reading his other works. Of course, I read the translated version of the rest of his plays. I didnt have the patience to read them in Shakespearen language!
I was planning to write about the books I love in five categories (Five is the number here, remember?), but even five categories are not enough. In this last category, I would like to mention the comics I love. Starting with Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha to Archies and my favourites till date The Adventures of Tintin and The Adventures of Asterix and Obelix. I also remember reading a few Photo Romance in my early teens :-). And how can I forget my favourite magazine of all times Target!
Five Books I Want to read (This is a section that Anks introduced which I feel is quite apt!) -
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Thanks to Ricky for reminding me of this book)
Lajja by Tasalima Nasarina (Thanks to Anks)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Thanks to Moonie)
Shame by Salman Rushdie
Tag Five people -
Well, this is an open invitation to all book lovers who haven't participated yet. People with no blog are welcome to post their tag as a comment to this post.
Total Number of Books I Own -
Four. Three of which I had brought with me from India and one is actually V's. Of course, back home in India, I have innumerable books which I collected since childhood. Books I received as prizes in school and as gifts. I don't remember buying any book in particular. I never had the need as we own a book shop. So, I always got to read many many books without the need to buy. Whichever book that I felt need to be in my collection, I simply 'took' it.
The Last Book I Bought -
Stranger Stories by Satyajit Ray and Modern Indian Short Stories. Both of these I had bought for the flight from India. I love reading short stories, be it the ones we had in our school syllabi, ones by O' Henry, Jeffrey Archer, W. Somerset Maugham or just a collection of stories by various authors. I love the twists in the Jeffrey Archer and S Maugham stories. Probably one of the reason why I enjoy reading stories written by my blog friends so much.
The Last Book I Read -
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Well, this book needs no introduction. I found the research done and the pace of the book amazing and unputdownable. I enjoyed Deception Point too. After reading these, I am so looking forward to read The Da Vinci Code. I am going the reverse way - people normally read DVC first, then Angels and Demons and then Deception Point. My path was exactly reverse! :-)
Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me -
As most of us feel, five is a very small number to list all the books the we love. I read only fiction, so as such I have no 'life changing' book that I am very close to. Books that mean a lot to me are the ones I grew up with. As with most of us, it started with Enid Blyton's books. The first books I remember to have read (apart from school books, nursery rhymes other 'learning' books) are the Noddy series. How I used to pester my dad to take me to our shop so that I could get the next 2 Noddy books (I was allowesd to take only 2 at a time).
From Enid Blyton's kiddo books I transitioned to more 'mature' Hardy Boys, The Three Investigators and then Nancy Drew. From then I moved on to Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and her dear Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series and the Perry Mason series.
About then I also started reading classics like Dickens, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy etc. Its been so long ago that I read all these classics, I sometimes think of reading them all over again. During the early stages of reading classics, I remember being touched by the story of The Little Princess. I was so excited when, after a few years, I got to see a movie based on that story.
A few books that my dad suggested me to read were Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, To Sir With Love, Farewell to Arms and To Kill A Mocking Bird. I dont think I need to mention how beautiful each of these are.
The next set of books that I love are plays by Shakespeare. Of them all, I have read three in quite detail - The Merchant of Venice, Julius Ceasar and Twelfth Night or What You Will. I had these in my school curriculum from 8th till 12th std. Julius Ceasar was the toughest of all. But, having these books in my syllabus helped me get interested in reading his other works. Of course, I read the translated version of the rest of his plays. I didnt have the patience to read them in Shakespearen language!
I was planning to write about the books I love in five categories (Five is the number here, remember?), but even five categories are not enough. In this last category, I would like to mention the comics I love. Starting with Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha to Archies and my favourites till date The Adventures of Tintin and The Adventures of Asterix and Obelix. I also remember reading a few Photo Romance in my early teens :-). And how can I forget my favourite magazine of all times Target!
Five Books I Want to read (This is a section that Anks introduced which I feel is quite apt!) -
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Thanks to Ricky for reminding me of this book)
Lajja by Tasalima Nasarina (Thanks to Anks)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Thanks to Moonie)
Shame by Salman Rushdie
Tag Five people -
Well, this is an open invitation to all book lovers who haven't participated yet. People with no blog are welcome to post their tag as a comment to this post.
7 comments:
Me First!! Now lemme read...:)
You have one of the most comprehensive list of fiction books and then also you made us think that you don't read a lot of them. Aree, you own a bookshop for God's Sake...lol.
Keep the books you want to read on "Reserve", otherwise you will never get a chance to get them from the library.
I love short stories too and Archer is a master short-storyteller. I love his twists. One excellent short story book that I can recommed is Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladise". This one was released after "Namesake" and it's really very good.
Angels and Demons was good though Da Vinci is better and almost on same lines (not the story but the narrative style).
Tintin is my fav. comic book too. I had all of them back in India.
Very nice post. Keep reading...
u have a very nice blog.
keep it up
Book-tag => I almost began the tag post and then... too tired to think I posted something entirely else!!
But you have a great list here - even though you claim to be not much of a reader! Not much of a buyer may be....! ;)
Life of Pi sounds interesting... may be I'll get that one after D&A. :)
Wowiee, ur family owns a bookstore back home. Thats so great. I really love browsing through books in a bookstore or library. And the smell of old books is so nice.
Your graph of reading ( Blyton - Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew - Christie/Holmes - classics - pulp fiction) is identical to mine. Even I went thru this route. It is fun to gradually graduate to the next level. Hmmm, I missed out on Dickens in my post. Hv read a few of his works too. And 'Farewell To Arms' was also part of my college course. I hv read a lot of Shakespeare too, and Julius Caesar is indeed tough ( I guess u had the ICSE course, since its not there in CBSE which I followed in school). Tintin is another of my favorite. OMG, my own book tag post looks so incomplete now!
Great choice there Colors!
great choices colors! did u read 'astrix' comics too? i used to love them and like ricky, i also love tinitin!and amar chitra kathas taught me a whole lot about mythology. simply loved them. used to get them bound in groups of 10 acc. to number! nice post :
-RS
Ricky and Nupur, :-) Well, I used to read a a lot of books. These are all the books I read till my 12th std - books I grew up with. "Interpreter of Maladise" sounds good. Thanks, will add to my ever growing 'to read' list. :-)
Idli Ideas, interesting name! Welcome to my blog. Thanks! I hope you keep visiting :-)
DJ, you are welcome to browse at our store as much as you want :-). One more incentive to visit Sikkim! Yes, I was in ICSE. Well, like Ricky said..so many books...a single post is not enough to write about all the books we love, isnt it?
RS, Thanks! Oh I love Astrix comics till now. Those are my favourite! And I love Captain Haddock and his "Billions of blue blistering barnacles" of Tintin :)
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