Bookslut.
Happy Diwali, everyone! You'd think I was home, but no. I have to work even today. It's such a waste, though, 'cause everything else is shut; everyone else is on leave, and so there's really no point being in office. Phones aren't ringing, clients aren't walking in..
I was interrupted in the middle of typing this out by 864 scroll bags, 16 short of the number we'd ordered. Like I said, there aren't many people around in office today, so I pretty much carried all 36 bundles by myself. At least I feel marginally productive now. She says as she updates her blog at work...
--------------------------------------------------
I stole this off some other blog. You're supposed to be "tagged" to play, but I'm a rule-breaker. And really incredibly bored.
Total Number of Books I Own: This depends on the defnition of "own." For instance, does this include the numerous books I've stolen from my parents? If so, at least a 1000. All I know is that whenever I'm moving away, my mother cribs incessantly about the number of books I feel compelled to take with me, which doesn't even constitute 1/10th of the books I own.
Last Book I Bought: "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan and "India: From Midnight to Millenium" by Shashi Tharoor.
Last Book I Read: Technically speaking, "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie. But if you mean "Last Book I Read Not for the Third Time," then "The Moor's Last Sigh" also by Rushdie.
Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: Oh boy, just five...?
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger: Yeah, how cliched, right? I don't care. This was the first book that I wanted to marry - No, I didn't want to marry Holden; I wanted to marry the book. It was the only way I knew how to express my bottomless love for it. I first read it when I was 15 - We were on a holiday in Goa. Bo and I, as usual, stayed up talking until the wee hours. At about 4 am she fell asleep, but I started reading the book hoping it would lull me to sleep. When she woke up at 10, I was still reading.
.. I have this urge to go on talking about it, but I will ...restrain myself.
How Green Was My Valley? -Richard Llewellyn: This was the first REAL adult novel I ever read. When I was 14, my mum gave me a ancient copy of this book that used to belong to Dadu, the kind where each page fell off daintily as soon as you turned it. At that point, I was in the 10th std, and reading non-textbooks had become an alien concept. Still, in a summer awash with the rigidities of academia, I managed to lock myself in my room for a few days to read. I finished the book in two or three days, and for the first time since Beth died in Little Women, I found myself crying for someone who didn't exist. I haven't read the book since; I don't even know if I'd still like it, but the chapters where the protagonist, Huw is describing his adoloscent love for his sister-in-law Bronwen have stuck with me for being beautifully compelling.
Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth: One of my favourite collections of short stories - they're well-written, poignant, insightful and so damn funny. I've always been very attached to this book, particularly the title story, probably because I first read it at an age where the trials and tribulations of Neil and Brenda felt all too real, briging me a lot of comfort.
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. It was love at first. I've yet to come across a better written novel, one that captures the insanity and devastation - both physical and emotional - of war with such silver-tongued perfection. I read a large part of the book on the train to college, giving off the impression of being stark raving mad: The unparalleled mordancy of its humour erased all my inhibitions of laughing out loud in public when alone. I've read it twice after the first time, and with each reading, I am more and more amazed at its incredible complexity, and also, at the utter poignancy Heller extricates from the book's humour.
"Do you really mean that it's not my business how or why I get killed and that it is Colonel Cathcart's? Do you really mean that?"
"Yes, I do," Clevinger insisted, seeming unsure. "There are men entrusted with winning the war who are in a much better position than we are to decide what targets have to be bombed."
"We are talking about two different things," Yossarian answered with exaggerated weariness. "You are talking about the relationship of the Air Corps to the infantry. You are talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "Open your eyes, Clevinger. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie: So not my favourite Rushdie, not his strongest work, but definitely the one that means the most to me. Let me disabuse everyone of the notion that it's overtly political or horrifyingly offensive - Despite its admittedly sprawling nature, it's an incisive, endearingly (ha!) irreverent, beautifully written yet hilarious look at Indians and the Indian diaspora. Gibreel and Chamcha's characters are so spot-on. I love it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
That was fun. It also makes me want to read all the aforementioned books again.
I was interrupted in the middle of typing this out by 864 scroll bags, 16 short of the number we'd ordered. Like I said, there aren't many people around in office today, so I pretty much carried all 36 bundles by myself. At least I feel marginally productive now. She says as she updates her blog at work...
--------------------------------------------------
I stole this off some other blog. You're supposed to be "tagged" to play, but I'm a rule-breaker. And really incredibly bored.
Total Number of Books I Own: This depends on the defnition of "own." For instance, does this include the numerous books I've stolen from my parents? If so, at least a 1000. All I know is that whenever I'm moving away, my mother cribs incessantly about the number of books I feel compelled to take with me, which doesn't even constitute 1/10th of the books I own.
Last Book I Bought: "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan and "India: From Midnight to Millenium" by Shashi Tharoor.
Last Book I Read: Technically speaking, "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie. But if you mean "Last Book I Read Not for the Third Time," then "The Moor's Last Sigh" also by Rushdie.
Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: Oh boy, just five...?
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger: Yeah, how cliched, right? I don't care. This was the first book that I wanted to marry - No, I didn't want to marry Holden; I wanted to marry the book. It was the only way I knew how to express my bottomless love for it. I first read it when I was 15 - We were on a holiday in Goa. Bo and I, as usual, stayed up talking until the wee hours. At about 4 am she fell asleep, but I started reading the book hoping it would lull me to sleep. When she woke up at 10, I was still reading.
.. I have this urge to go on talking about it, but I will ...restrain myself.
How Green Was My Valley? -Richard Llewellyn: This was the first REAL adult novel I ever read. When I was 14, my mum gave me a ancient copy of this book that used to belong to Dadu, the kind where each page fell off daintily as soon as you turned it. At that point, I was in the 10th std, and reading non-textbooks had become an alien concept. Still, in a summer awash with the rigidities of academia, I managed to lock myself in my room for a few days to read. I finished the book in two or three days, and for the first time since Beth died in Little Women, I found myself crying for someone who didn't exist. I haven't read the book since; I don't even know if I'd still like it, but the chapters where the protagonist, Huw is describing his adoloscent love for his sister-in-law Bronwen have stuck with me for being beautifully compelling.
Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth: One of my favourite collections of short stories - they're well-written, poignant, insightful and so damn funny. I've always been very attached to this book, particularly the title story, probably because I first read it at an age where the trials and tribulations of Neil and Brenda felt all too real, briging me a lot of comfort.
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. It was love at first. I've yet to come across a better written novel, one that captures the insanity and devastation - both physical and emotional - of war with such silver-tongued perfection. I read a large part of the book on the train to college, giving off the impression of being stark raving mad: The unparalleled mordancy of its humour erased all my inhibitions of laughing out loud in public when alone. I've read it twice after the first time, and with each reading, I am more and more amazed at its incredible complexity, and also, at the utter poignancy Heller extricates from the book's humour.
"Do you really mean that it's not my business how or why I get killed and that it is Colonel Cathcart's? Do you really mean that?"
"Yes, I do," Clevinger insisted, seeming unsure. "There are men entrusted with winning the war who are in a much better position than we are to decide what targets have to be bombed."
"We are talking about two different things," Yossarian answered with exaggerated weariness. "You are talking about the relationship of the Air Corps to the infantry. You are talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "Open your eyes, Clevinger. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie: So not my favourite Rushdie, not his strongest work, but definitely the one that means the most to me. Let me disabuse everyone of the notion that it's overtly political or horrifyingly offensive - Despite its admittedly sprawling nature, it's an incisive, endearingly (ha!) irreverent, beautifully written yet hilarious look at Indians and the Indian diaspora. Gibreel and Chamcha's characters are so spot-on. I love it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
That was fun. It also makes me want to read all the aforementioned books again.
posted by Auri @ 11:34 AM
1 Comments:
At 11:01 AM,
ramblingblogger said…
Hey hey - two can play that game! And stealing my book review idea is just cheap, especially in advance.
I read the Moor's Last Sigh first, and there are things about it that have stayed with me longer than the Verses. But my favourite, a lot of the time, is Grimus - have you read it? His first, and just perfect. I think his books underwent a shift when they left India, I don't like the recent ones at all. Have you read the newest?
Just skimmed some of the rest of your page. I have been having similar thoughts on the monogamy issue myself - I envy people who can be free and rational about such things, but I also know what the pain in my belly that is betrayal feels like. And that if I were in a relationship and cheating didn't feel like betrayal, that I hope I would have the strength to call it a day. I do know of relationships without cheating though, for what that's worth.
I really am in an insomniac mood. Going to leave you now, and add dark chocolate to my list of interests. Why didn't that occur to me sooner? Looking forward to the email. Peace X
Post a Comment
<< Home