OK Animesh lets do this; youve re-ignited my list OCD (the much announced case in point: bit.ly/top44-ncj, where I am still struggling) which wont go away till I get this away from my system. Ill restrict myself to 5 books here, for the sake of brevity (EDIT: rather ironic aim, considering the length of the post as it stands). Ill steer away from the most books you already would have read, or heard about (so no Seth, Camus or Orwell); let us make this a book discovery meme. 1. A Supposedly Fun Thing Ill Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace Most of you sports fans (or FedEx fans) would be aware of DFWs sublime writing skills in his epic NYT essay Federer as a Religious Experience or even the borderline idiosyncratic essay in Gourmet magazine Consider the Lobster. This book though, is a laugh riot & cutting satire at the same time. A misfit, introvert, brilliant authors observations aboard a luxurious 7 star cruise, mixing with self-indulgent super-rich patrons; unmissable! 2. Kashi Ka Assi by Kashinath Singh Im a big fan of story of the times type books, and this one again is a hilarious yet deeply philosophical run down of national & world views of the residents of Assi (a legendary colony in Varanasi) narrated through its colorful inhabitants, written in the irreverent tone of banaras. Quite unlike the Jayashankar Prasad - Mahadevi Verma alankar we were brought up on. Most of you would be aware / have read Raag Darbari. You will most certainly enjoy this if you swear by that one. 3. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov As a famous review (from where I borrow my About Me on various social networks) notes about this book: Pale Fire is a Jack-in-the-box, a Faberge gem, a clockwork toy, a chess problem, an infernal machine, a trap to catch reviewers, a cat-and-mouse game, a do-it-yourself novel. This is novel writing (I mean challenging the form of it) at its most innovative epitome that Ive come across. And the language, as you would expect from Nabokov, is exquisite. Slightly difficult read, but well worth the efforts put in! 4. I, Claudius by Robert Graves This book, and the subsequent BBC TV series, made me fall in love with the historical fiction genre; adding an item to my already overflowing bucket list - to write something similar with Pataliputra (Patna) as the backdrop (City of Djinns by Dalrymple later reinforced that wish). This novel breathes life into the Caludio-Julian era of the Roman Empire, that too from the perspective of an unlikely narrator - Cladius. Its insanely well researched historical facts, and flowing language make me wish that all history books were written this way! 5. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch If Withnail and I were to be a classy British novel, Im guessing this must be it. The book is funny, philosophical, full of unpredictable yet converging action & protagonists. Most importantly, it does not have the pretense of books that carry a serious tone or message to be billed as worthy reads. Thats it. Until next time some-one tags me for a Film noir list. Ill just tag Lath to see if this acts as an invocation to raise him from the dead.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 18:13:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015