The book meme
Rumy has invited me on onto a chain blog about my reading taste. There doesn't seem to be any category for the books you love, so have decided to name them anyway. Thank you Fatty, Wilt, William, Bunter, Psmith, Alleyn, Wimsey, Toff, Matilda, Mason, Biggles and Heyer, Elton, Streatfield and Christie for the very many hours of sheer enjoyment all these years. God knows how many names I've missed out. But I shall make good the omissions in the near future. Now here goes:
1. Total number of books owned: Over 100 but less than 1000
2. Last book I bought: I bought two at the same time actually. The first is Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger. I haven't started reading it "properly" just yet, but I did browse through a good half-chapter before I picked it up. The book is a collection of short stories about firang women who spent a part of their lives in India. The first story is set in Delhi and all about Gol Market, Khan Market, etc. Nostalgia stuff! The other book is the execrable Harry Potter book 5. I've only bought it because my original copy's in our library in Hyd and, much as I hate to, I'll have to read it once more before I start on Book 6.
3. Last book I read: The Amazing Tale of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo. I really enjoyed this book. It has all the elements that make me happy. It's set in the last years of WW-II on the south-east coast of England just prior to the D-Day landings in Normandy. It's mostly the diary of a 12-year-old whose entire village has been asked to pack up and move further ashore to make way for training exercises for the landing. And how, while the family does move, their cat, Tips, doesn't. And the subsequent search for the cat and related events. So it's a simple tale with a twist. Bed-time reading at the moment is Paddington Bear. Am I imagining it or can anyone else see the connection to the marmalade sandwiches I 've been having for breakfast for a month now!
4. Five books that mean a lot to me: Well this is as good time as any to point out that I read for entertainment and the love of the language but not for inspiration or wisdom or self-improvement. So it's always fiction and, if I can help it, has a happy ending. Right. On with the list:
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome: Lovely, lovely, lovely book! Humour and poetry, what a delightfully uplifting combination! I can re-read this book endlessly. I find something new in it every time I read it. This might sound a bit obssessive but the last time, I focussed on the punctuation.
Moab is My Washpot by Stephen Fry: Another exhilerating read by a master wordsmith who committed to memory the entire dictionary during his undergrad years. I am not keen on the autobiography genre. And I only picked it up reluctantly, by chance, because I'd read all the fiction he'd written. The book is brilliant--if only for the use of language and Fry's sensitivity.
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee: I read this book a long time back when I went to Bombay (when it was Bombay) to work at ET. I had read an excerpt from this book in a collection of short stories some years before. And when I joined the British Council library, I hunted it down. The book is set in early 20th century rural England and about the author's childhood. The style is beautifully lyrical and very, very descriptive.
Stalky & Co by Rudyard Kipling: This has to be the father and mother of all school stories. Stories of brilliantly irreverent, pranking school boys versus their hapless "beaks". Oooh the revenge is delicious! Loads of writers since have clearly been inspired by Kipling's formula. I can see glimpses of the same in St. Clare's and Malory Towers, and even in Bunter and William.
Death in Zanzibar by MM Kaye: I luuurve a good murder mystery. Add the 1930s, exotic locales and a hint or more of romance and I am in reader's heaven. All the MM Kaye "Death.." books are to be savoured. I just wish she'd written more. Mary Stewart pulls off the same formula beautifully in Moon-Spinners and Wildfire at Midnight. The purrfect books to take on a holiday.
5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog: Don't know too many people who have a blog. But would love to hear what Alina, Phillip, Bash, Azfar and Nishu are reading.
1. Total number of books owned: Over 100 but less than 1000
2. Last book I bought: I bought two at the same time actually. The first is Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger. I haven't started reading it "properly" just yet, but I did browse through a good half-chapter before I picked it up. The book is a collection of short stories about firang women who spent a part of their lives in India. The first story is set in Delhi and all about Gol Market, Khan Market, etc. Nostalgia stuff! The other book is the execrable Harry Potter book 5. I've only bought it because my original copy's in our library in Hyd and, much as I hate to, I'll have to read it once more before I start on Book 6.
3. Last book I read: The Amazing Tale of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo. I really enjoyed this book. It has all the elements that make me happy. It's set in the last years of WW-II on the south-east coast of England just prior to the D-Day landings in Normandy. It's mostly the diary of a 12-year-old whose entire village has been asked to pack up and move further ashore to make way for training exercises for the landing. And how, while the family does move, their cat, Tips, doesn't. And the subsequent search for the cat and related events. So it's a simple tale with a twist. Bed-time reading at the moment is Paddington Bear. Am I imagining it or can anyone else see the connection to the marmalade sandwiches I 've been having for breakfast for a month now!
4. Five books that mean a lot to me: Well this is as good time as any to point out that I read for entertainment and the love of the language but not for inspiration or wisdom or self-improvement. So it's always fiction and, if I can help it, has a happy ending. Right. On with the list:
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome: Lovely, lovely, lovely book! Humour and poetry, what a delightfully uplifting combination! I can re-read this book endlessly. I find something new in it every time I read it. This might sound a bit obssessive but the last time, I focussed on the punctuation.
Moab is My Washpot by Stephen Fry: Another exhilerating read by a master wordsmith who committed to memory the entire dictionary during his undergrad years. I am not keen on the autobiography genre. And I only picked it up reluctantly, by chance, because I'd read all the fiction he'd written. The book is brilliant--if only for the use of language and Fry's sensitivity.
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee: I read this book a long time back when I went to Bombay (when it was Bombay) to work at ET. I had read an excerpt from this book in a collection of short stories some years before. And when I joined the British Council library, I hunted it down. The book is set in early 20th century rural England and about the author's childhood. The style is beautifully lyrical and very, very descriptive.
Stalky & Co by Rudyard Kipling: This has to be the father and mother of all school stories. Stories of brilliantly irreverent, pranking school boys versus their hapless "beaks". Oooh the revenge is delicious! Loads of writers since have clearly been inspired by Kipling's formula. I can see glimpses of the same in St. Clare's and Malory Towers, and even in Bunter and William.
Death in Zanzibar by MM Kaye: I luuurve a good murder mystery. Add the 1930s, exotic locales and a hint or more of romance and I am in reader's heaven. All the MM Kaye "Death.." books are to be savoured. I just wish she'd written more. Mary Stewart pulls off the same formula beautifully in Moon-Spinners and Wildfire at Midnight. The purrfect books to take on a holiday.
5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog: Don't know too many people who have a blog. But would love to hear what Alina, Phillip, Bash, Azfar and Nishu are reading.
posted by Sabiha | 9:54 AM
8 Comments:
paddington bear is adorable sabs and thanks for reminding me about 'three men in a boat', it is one the funniest books i've read. i know what to get on my next trip to the bookshop.
i like harry potter though, and book 3 and 5 (in that order) are my favourites.
you might want to check out this blog: http://www.jaiarjun.blogspot.com
there are plenty of links on this blog that you might like as well.
Harry Potter Book 3 is my favourite. But I found myself wanting tear out a 200-page chunk out of Book 5 and consign it to a bonfire. Hopefully there are different editors on Book 6.
Hey Rums, how did you come across jaiarun's blog and who is he? I just visited it and it's Fairly Serious stuff. I particularly liked his piece on PRs and the mention of Shubho!
i knew you'd like his blog. he is a kid (26-27 years, i think, qualifies him as a kid!!) who works for BS. what i like about his blog is attention to his writing. most youngsters now don't bother with writing simple and correct english. also he has interesting takes on issues and people.
the blog scene here is pretty vibrant as you will discover if you have enough time to follow links...
Hello! Do you realise that I have not read 3 of your 5 fave books. Also this is a very small world. Sheetal also reads Jai Arjun's blogs and he is one of her blog links. And got a blog link from Niru (Paris) to another guy called Samit Basu who is also linked to this Jai Arjun blog.
As for hating children, Rumi aren't you the one who told some poor kid in the line in front of you that you would eat his ears?
Nish
As for what I'm reading will post on blog and tell address (yes Sheetal you read right)
shhh nish, i'm a mom now and have to pretend to be tolerant etc. the truth is, i still don't like kids, except my own.
send me your blog address as well.
hi, sabiha, i read your list of books with nostalgia and interest. i do believe books like three men and stalky are read only on the subcontinent now. shankar was introduced to william books in alipore, when i used to read them aloud to him and he still reads and re-reads them. all bought in calcutta. we remarked, very recently, on the language. far from talking down, richmal cromption used words like indignant and lugubrious which would surely be beyond the vocabulary of most young kids. but it never spoilt the books - in fact, i think you got the sense of the word anyway and absorbed it at some level. there 's so much patronage in the deliberately simple language of a lot of children's books. shankie's theory is that crompton really wrote the books for herself. you know she was a paraplegic and, being confined to a wheelchair, william's wild romps and anarchic behaviour were a sort of vicarious life for her.
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