A little chat on books?

Hangout GupShup Cafe
21

Yasir... looks like Nicolai Gogol's short stories may be worth looking into, i only very rarely go for short stories anymore. Thanks for reminding about John Steinbeck. Have heard so much about the author, haven't read any of his books yet. Yes, antics of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Aunt Polly and Becky, take you back to childhood... Mark Twain is great!

hmmm Crime and Punishment is due for a re-read. War and Peace I had abandoned once; Enjoyed Anna Karenena... was long back though, I remember most distinctly the way they(sorry, names are forgotton) would playfully communicate by just writing first letters of the words, and letting the other person guess the entire sentence... that was romantic in parts!

22

Ok, I got "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Leave it to Psmith" in the mail today. I don't know how long it will take me to finish these, but if I don't like them, you owe me money, Miss. :)

23

Wow, you beat me to it. I have yet to go to the bookshop. So, you are gonna recover money from me if you dont like the books, huh. ok, I guess I can live with that, since you owe me a trip to Mexico... ;)

Which book you're going to read first? I'd suggest PSmith, cause its a thinner volume. *HitchHiker's * has one of the wittiest and zanniest ideas I ever came across in a book, its quite off the beaten track kinda book. I would be interested to see whether you liked it. Happy reading! :)

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Hello Ananya! :slight_smile:

I came across this thread a bit late—maazrat etc!

So, you are a voracious reader? I like that word, voracious! I USED to be a voracious reader–now I guess I am still a regular reader of books but no longer quite so avid [kyonke waqt hi nahin milta hai]! But it’s still my fave. pastime!

So, aap aaj kal bar-e-sagheer [subcontinent] ki kitaabein mulaahiza farmaa rehee hain? That’s cool! I’ve read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth which was very good; in fact in a book so large, you cannot really appreciate it all at once so I’ll probably re-read it when I get the time! BTW, who was your fave. character in Suitable Boy? Mine was Saeeda Bai, the tawaif!

I haven’t yet read God of Small Things

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/frown.gif

but I do plan to read it, insha Allah! Is it good?

Perhaps you can read The Crooked Line (teRhi Lakeer) by Ismat Chughtai and translated into English from the Urdu by Tahira Naqvi. It’s a modern urdu classic.

Another excellent book is Sunlight On A Broken Column by Atia Hosain who was an Indian Muslim upper-class lady. It is a love story set just around the time of partition and is also a social commentary on the Nawabs. Very good! :slight_smile:

Ismat Chughtai’s short story collection ‘Lihaaf’ is also available in english translation entitled ‘The Quilt and other short stories.’

I recently read a brilliant set of Urdu short stories from modern pakistan called ‘Ishq kay numaainda afsaane’ which was a collection of stories by all the best modern urdu writers. It is only in Urdu script I’m afraid…so you should learn just for this book!!! :slight_smile:

Samarkand by Amin Malouf, a Lebanese writer, is one of my favourite books. It is a fictionalised historical account of the life of Umar Khayyam the famous persian poet and astronomer. It won some French prize. Bahut acchee kitaab hai–and it’s fairly slim as well! :slight_smile:

If you haven’t read J R R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings you MUST do so immediately. It is a fantasy novel but is full of so much else drama, romance, adventure, poetry, comedy, tragedy–that it is, probably, my favourite english book. It is v. long too but worth it. :slight_smile:

You say that you haven;t tried much sci-fi? Main kaafi sci-fi parHta hoon!! Read ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert which is awesome (and long) or for a less bulky introduction try Arthur C Clarke’s The Songs of Distant Earth, or Fountains of Paradise (which is set in Sri Lanka) or any of his many books. Sab bahut acchee hain.

For sci-fi short stories, Isaac Asimov was the best. Read his classic collection, ‘I, Robot.’ as a start :slight_smile:

Oh yeh, another great book is Neverness by David Zindell.

Tariq Ali’s ‘In the shadow of the pomegranate tree’ is very good! :slight_smile:

Anyway, that’s enough suggestions for now I think ji! Can you suggest me some books as well, as I need a good read! :slight_smile:

Hmm…aap poetry bhi read karti hain? I love poetry! Yes, Mawlana Rumi is wonderful–especially in Farsi! But his english translation is wonderful. In this case you MUST MUST MUST read Anne-Marie Schimmel’s ‘I Am Wind, You Are Fire:The Life & Works of Rumi’. Amazing! Other than the Mawlana I read mostly the great Urdu poets in Urdu…Ghalib, Mir, Iqbal, Ahmed Faraz, Faiz, Firaq…most of Ghalib and Iqbal is available in English translations too and i’m sure in Hindi script too. Sufi poetry is my favourite! :)I’m afraid I haven’t read too much english poetry though

http://www.pak.org/gupshup/frown.gif

asif

[This message has been edited by Asif (edited August 03, 1999).]

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I see that you all have a lot of decent picks for books.

I want to know if there are any places in the US or Canada where I can buy some good old literature, Urdu ofcourse. Maybe someone knows a good online link or something. Plus some names would be great too. I am not too interested in short stories so something else would be great.

Just respond to this or email me from the email link provided on this.

Thanks

26

I am fortunate to have read several good
books, but only three that changed the way
I see the world and myself.

In alphabetical order, they are:

  • Fighting Spirit: The Biography of Bruce Lee by Bruce Thomas

  • The Holy Bible - King James Version

  • Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

27

Asif, thanks for taking out time to make those suggestions. They’ll be very useful and make my visit to bookshop more focussed, I have read Chughtai’s “Crookd line” and have browsed through Tolkein, but the sheer volume of the book always changed my mind.

lol, ‘voracious’ word was actually used by queer. I don’t read as much as I used to , yeah… too little time. In ‘The Suitable Boy’ I liked Lata the lead character most. She has a mind of her own, is part impulsive and part practical, has a love for poetry, sometimes makes initial opinions on superficial things (like Harish’s paan chewing, flashy clothes, saying kawnpore instead of kanpur :)) , but she can also overcome those biases (unlike her elder brother). By the way what do you think of her final choice of a suitable boy?

Apart from books I discussed earlier, I’ll make few more suggestions, but remember no money back guarantees. :)

To kill a mocking bird, by Harper Lee. Complex theme of racial discrimination but told through children’s eye… their father takes on the daunting task of defending a black man in deep south. Very well written.

One flew over cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey. Story of mental asylum and ‘controlling’ the patients. There’s also an excellent Jack Nicholson movie based on this.

*Notes to myself *by Hugh Prather. As the name suggests, taken from the ideas the author expressed in his diary. Very moving, and thought provoking, makes you take a stock of your own life.

28

Hello again Ananya!

Thanks for suggesting those books!

About Suitable Boy, I was really annoyed with Lata's final choice as the guy was my least liked character in the book--completely unromantic/unglamorous and boring!! I was hoping she'd marry Kabir!! :)

You really must read The Lord of the Rings from cover to cover--after all, it's not as long as Vikram Seth's book!!

Currently I'm reading an amazing book by Gita Mehta called A River Sutra; it's poetic beauty and language is astounding--even though it's a novel in prose!

take care

Asif

29

hi Asif,

ok, you've convinced me about Tolkein. Fantasy books was something else I hadn't ventured into, so would make a nice change.

I have read A River Sutra. It was all right, interesting enough to be able to finish it, but i couldn't really relate much to the stories... too much mysticism.

In 'Suitable boy', yeah I also wished Lata would marry Kabir but circumstances and those times(just after partition) were not quite ripe for an inter-religion match. Her final choice wasn't such an unromantic character, you know. He had enough self assurance to be himself, he cared enough to do little things to make Lata and her mom comfortable during their interactions. And there was a funny little couplet associated with him...
Chasing Simran, chased by Gaur,
Chaste before but chaste no more :)

In fact, the way Meenakshi, Amit and Kakoli spin out witty couplets was quite an endearing feature of the book. Seth is a fine poet, and it just added to the liveliness of other characters in the story.

I see that you also have been reading works of 'bar-e-sagheer' authors. Have you read Rohinton Mistry? I have his book A fine balance, but havent read it yet. So many books and so little time... :)

30

Ananya ji :slight_smile:

Hi!

Finished a River Sutra now! I actually enjoyed it very much–especially the references to mysticism! The stories of the courtesan and the musican as well as the mullah were all good! :slight_smile:

No I haven’t read the book by R. Mistry

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About Suitable Boy–yes Seth’s poetry is v. good and this was one of the things I enjoyed. The poetical contents page was a stroke of genius haina?! That’s why you’ll like Tolkien–it is littered with excellent poetry!

Oh, read Taj by Murarji–it’s a historical novel about the love between Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal..although it does portray a very bad (historically incorrect) image of Aurangzaib Alamgir…

Have you ever read any Shobha De?

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Sobha De... our desi Jackie Collins, huh :) I dont remember which one of her books I read, was mostly about celebrity gossip, unraveling glamour, etc.. didn’t leave much of an impression on me. have you read any by her which you would recommend?

32

Hi,
This my first visit to this thread. I haven't read much in English though I've read a good deal of my mothertongue. I am fond of reading fictions & I am a fan of Forsyth & the lot. I'm also a big fan of Agatha Christie.
I've got a very useful information about good books & good authors through this thread & I'll try to read those.