Books read: June 2005 to December 2007

I read a lot. Not quite what some authors, writers, and journalists probably read but in addition to a couple hundred books I own, I almost always have anywhere from 3-10 books at any given time that I have checked out from the public library (my main source for books - what a great facility almost every single town/city in the US enjoys!), of which I read 1-2 in its entirety, peruse through a few, a few I try but somehow lack the time or the inclination and mood at that time to go beyond a few pages, and some I might just return without reading any more than the bookflap!




Anyways, yesterday, I picked up The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (whose other famous books like High Fidelity , About a Boy , and the recent How to Be Good.) I have heard of Hornby and the cult-like following his books like High Fidelity have..but never read any of his books - although coincidentally, I read an interview with him just yesterday in Terry Gross's fascinating book, All I Did Was Ask, a collection of interview's from her program, Fresh Air, which airs on NPR everyday). Anyways, The Polysyllabic Spree is a true account of the books bought and read by Nick from September 2003 to November 2004. And though I have thought of keeping a log of the books I read for a while now, I woke up thinking today is the day to start. This is the kind of thing which would be nice to start as a new year resolution on the first of a year but, like Nick's book aptly points out..dates are just a reference point in this long struggle and love-affair with books and reading.

So, without trying to remember all the books I read earlier this year, I decided to start with most recent from the past month. Over the years, I have read 100s of books and do not even remember some that I read and enjoyed - though some liie Midnight Children, read in 1989-90, stand out because of the delightful joy they provided during the reading. In my other thread on Literature & Books, I have a haphazard smogarsboard of good books I hear about but this thread will be something more personal than a random list of links to books and reviews of the same. For the most part, I will not attempt reviews and personal comments about the books I read though a couple sentences here and there might be forthcoming, time and inclination permitting. - July 10, 2005


2005

June 2005

  1. Quantum by Jim Al-Khalili. Comment: Read only 50% or so of the book but only because the mood for reading more about quantum physics (a fascinating field for me along with the other monumental 20th century advance in physics - relativity theory, despite my limited understanding of both fields) waned. The author captures the essence and mysteries of the quantum world very well - taking even a non-physicist like me through a fascinating journey right from the Plank-Heisenberg-Bohr days (which I have read a lot about) to the more recent advances and theories since the 1960s like quantum electrodynamics, sub-atomic particles, string theory, etc. (which I have not read about much and did not read much of yet again - someday, I will have to return to this book.)
  2. A Sense of the Mysterious by Alan Lightman. Comment: A collection of essays on various topics - some autobiographical, some dealing with the interesting contrast and similarity of his careers in science and writing, some biographical expositions into the pscyhe of famous scientists like Einstein, Edward Teller, Richard Feynman, and Vera Rubin) and others just exploring not science itself but the 'human dimension' of science, if you will, as an enterprise. I read it completely.. not as interesting as his book Einstein's Dreams, which I read in the late 90s.
  3. Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From The Beaten Track - Richard Feynman Letters

July 2005

  1. All I Did Was Ask - Terry Gross. Comment: A collection of her interviews on Fresh Air over the years with artists, musicians, authors, and film-industry experts (actors, directors, story-writers, etc.). Makes for a fascinating read - despite the obvious disadvantages of trying to read what was, in its making, meant to be heard on radio.
  2. The Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby Comment: Its like reading an encylopedia.. a brief intro to various books (some known, many obscure) that Nick read every month...interesting in pieces.. dry and boring at times.. but hey..this is what gave me inspiration to this blog entry..so I say it was worth reading.. read maybe 30-40% of it before I returned it to the library. Too many books to read...too little time!
  3. The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 Comment: Loved it so much - should try to read The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954, The Complete Peanuts 1955-1956, The Complete Peanuts 1957-1958, The Complete Peanuts 1959-1960 and The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962, The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964 and The Complete Peanuts 1965-1966

August 2005

  1. Winning - Jack Welch with Suzy Welch

November 2005

  1. Black Holes, Wormholes & Time Machines by Jim Al-Khalili
  2. Whoosh by Tom McGehee

December 2005

This is the month to catch up on some authors I have heard about and been meaning to catch up on but never got around to it.

  1. Black Dogs by Ian McEwan Comment: Having heard so much of McEwan (along with Kazuo Ishiguro, he has to be one of the most Booker-nominated authors in recent times!), I went looking for his books at the public library and found most of them checked out! This one was available and I started on it. I found it a difficult book to read and that I had to concentrate a lot to follow.. (or maybe it was just that I have not read good literature in a while and make the cardinal mistake of trying to attempt a read when I was distracted and did not give it the attention it deserved). Either way, I could not commit the time this book required and havefailed to read beyond the first 20-30 pages, despite the fact that I enjoyed it despite the struggle. I need to get back to this one and give it the good reading it deserves.
  2. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan Comment: A masterpiece! I started with Black Dogs early in the month but on a subsequent visit to the library found this book and since it was a Booker winner, I picked it up and started on this.. Now I know why he got a Booker for this book and also why he has been nominated for a Booker multiple times! Nothing short of a full-blown review would do this book justice but I do not have the time for it now... except to say that the story itself can keep a reader engaged but in this book, it is the language, though difficult and needing my undivided attention, that kept me hooked and addicted and wanting more... I'll transcribe here one beautiful sentence from the book, although there are many other real long beautiful sentences and endearing gems in the book

"The ancient stone steps had been climbed, the wisps of sound had melted away like mist, his new melody, darkly scored in its first lonely manifestation for a muted trombone, had gathered around itself rich orchestral textures of sinuous harmony, then dissonance and whirling variations that spun away into space, never to reappear, and had now drawn itself up in a process of consolidation, like an explosion seen in reverse, funneling inward to a geometrical point of stillness; then the muted trombone again, and then, with a hushed crescendo, like a giant drawing breath, the final and colossal restatement of the melody (with one intriguing and as yet unsolved difference), which gathered pace and erupted into a wave, a rcing tsunami of sound reaching an impossible velocity, then rearing up, higher , and when it seemed beyond human capability, higher yet, and at last toppling, breaking and crashing vertiginously down to shatter on the hard safe ground of the home key of C minor. What remained were the pedal notes promising resolution and peace in infinite space. Then a diminuendo spanning forty-five seconds, dissolving into four bars of scored silence. The end."

Phew... Fantastico...what a ride! Who knew reading could take a reader through such a ride and leave him/her breathless like this.... only a true artist could write like this!!!

  1. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami Comment: While other books of Murakami have been lauded much more, I found this one and so decided to start here.. and was gripped for the first 120 pages! While not quite in the same category as McEwan, (maybe the beauty of the language is lost in translation), the story was gripping enough to make me finish this in 2-3 sittings. Even with the translation, the rumination in the last few pages was exquisite in putting into words the feelings of pain, longing, and 'disconnectedness', if you will, that comes from losing love, especially unrequited love.
  2. All for Love by Ved Mehta Comment: I wanted to read The Red Letters but it was checked out and so ended up bringing this book instead. While I am amazed at the clarity with which Ved Mehta, blind since age 4, records his life, I am getting a bit bored after the first 3 chapters, which outline his relationships with 3 different women in the 1960s. A fourth girlfriend and lots more introspection and psychoanalysis is to follow..but I get the feeling - why should I care? So far, the details of his surroundings are often captured well - especially given the author's condition; but like he writes in the preface, blindness has afforded him a certain keen-ness lets him experience his surroundings with vivid detail. There is a sense of narcissism in writing an autobiography sometimes or maybe a sense of catharsis and self-probing, in this case. The author is very objective in analyzing his past failures, needs, and such psychoanalysis perhaps served him well but from the reader's standpoint, other than the mild sense of voyeurism in reading about another's life (like gossip!), there has to be something special to grip the reader's attention. However, while a reader may be impressed by how the author has triumped over life in ways many of us will not and in some instances may empathize with his sense of insecurity in dealing with women and loneliness (symptomatically linked to his blindness, in the author's case, as he writes in the preface), there was not much to keep me engaged- especially when there are other excellent novels (#1 and #2 above) that are being read in parallel. Althought it should be said that the sense of voyeurism in reading the details of another's life is something I usually do not feel when reading autobiographies but it was probably a result of the author's disengaging honesty in writing about his inadequacies and insecurities. For this disengaging honesty and associated charm, I'll give the book a second chance in January and get beyond the third chapter.

2006

January 2006:

0. Finished Amsterdam

  1. Rapture by Susan Minot - Comment: Quickly read through this.... Unique aspect to the story telling & narration (leave you to read more detailed reviews at amazon.com & other sites) and not quite chic-lit - actually, nicely written in parts - but given that I was finishing up Amsterdam as I started this, this one didn't engage me enough. I never really cared much for books that ruminate about dating and analyze relationships - pulling apart the threads that make up a relationship (though, its funny that the other book I have been partly reading during this period (Tete-a-Tete, see below) could be said to be doing just that!)
  2. Tete-a-Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley. Comment: Read first 200 pages and last 50-odd pages of the book. There was a brief period of time in the late 90s when I read (or tried to read) various existentialist writers and even bought Sartre's Being & Nothingness...and so I knew that Sartre and Beauvoir were 'lovers'.. but reading through this book I learnt a lot more of their relationship.. through the passionate beginning in Paris to the last days when a blind and decrepit Sartre died.

    Additional comment on the much-written about Sartre-Beauvoir relationship - The kind of lifestyle and relationship is certainly not for everyone but it makes me wonder sometimes if philosophers, writers, artists live such bohemian lifestyles these days too or did that end with the 'revolutions' of the 60s and 70s. Maybe Woodstock (summer of 1969) was the last stop of such publicly exhibitionistic hedonistic activities in the modern era? But at the same time maybe there are still some individuals that live such apparently 'free' but innately pretentious lifestyles? (I am excluding here the lifestyles of serial-daters or even swingers... people sleep around, people cheat... but consensual non-stop affairs like this being sustained through a lifetime is probably unique!! I lost track of who and when and where and the tangled webs their lives wove early on through the book!! For a short update of their liason also read this article by Louis Menand - The strange liaison of Sartre and Beauvoir

    Reading Book #1, I thought of reading about their story from the 'horse's mouth', sotospeak... but did not really find the time to read this one - Letters to Sartre by Simone de Beauvoir, translated and edited by Quintin Hoare.

February 2006:

  1. Borges and the Eternal Orangutans by Luis Fernando Verissimo, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa Comment: A short delightful read! Very interesting narration, imaginative story-telling and replete with various literary references - this was a short and delightful read! The book is a celebration of the writing legacy of Edgar Allan Poe & Borges in a sense and although at its core, the story is a whodunit, it goes beyond the scope of a typical murder mystery with its various (often obscure to me!) literary and philosophical ruminations. Its short enough to complete in 1 sitting though I probably ruined it by reading it over 4-5 sittings!

In Jan/Feb, I also read half-way or perused through the following books.

  1. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Comment: Definitely more accessible than some of his earlier works but given other readings, I decided to not ruin it and stopped reading this after the first 20 pages - hoping to return to it some day when I can concentrate only on this book. I have always wanted to read Marquez but although, a long time ago I read a significant part of Of Love and Other Demons, attempts to read his masterpieces, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera have been in vain!
  2. The Romantics : A Novel by Pankaj Mishra Comment: Still reading - about 100 pages into it. Interesting part for me so far are the descriptions of Benaras.. making me realize that small-town India is more foreign to me than small-town USA!
  3. The Best American Science Writing 2005 Editor: Alan Lightman Comment: Interesting essays. Read about 40% of the essays. The really interesting ones were about biology/genetics/evolution. Hope to re-issue this book and take more notes next time about the essays I liked.
  4. The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry edited by Arnold Rampersad Comment: Really did not read much of this but need to re-issue and read when in the mood for poetry!
  5. SPARK - be more innovative through co-creation by John Winsor Comment: Good book.. Read the first few chapters and took some notes but need to complete reading this. What I liked about this is that it is a series of essays by different people and so brings in varied experiences and backgrounds rather than the opinions and one-sided views of a single author.
  6. The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley Comment: Good book.. Read through most of it but need to re-read with greater attention to detail and some note-taking!
  7. MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves That Drive Exceptional Business Growth by Rita Gunther McGrath Comment: Same as #9.

March 2006:

  1. A House on the Edge of Tears by Venus Khoury-Ghata, Translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker: Comment: See my review here.
  2. A House of Paper by Carlos Maria Dominguez Comment: Read only first 30%. To complete soon!
  3. Snap, Crackle, or Stop by Barbara Quinn
  4. Winning Habits by Dick Lyles
  5. Winning Ways by Dick Lyles

April/May 2006:

  1. The Trouble with Poetry (Poems) by Billy Collins
  2. Koula by Menis Koumandareas
  3. Imagining Numbers by Barry Mazur Comment: Great book. Review later...
  4. The Joy of Pi by David Blatner
  5. Blink - The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Comment: Good read.. Will reviewthe book some other time but for now read some follow-up thoughts at my blogpost on the 'Gladwell effect')
  6. The Red Letters - Ved Mehta Comment: Ok read..will review later.
  7. The 360 Degree Leader by John C. Maxwell Comment: Have read the first 80 pages as part of a 3-member team group-read at work. First book-club type reading of a book for me. Will blog about the experience and the book when I finish the book over the next couple months.
  8. Fish! Sticks: A Remarkable Way to Adapt to Changing Times and Keep Your Work Fresh by Stephen Lundlin
  9. The Circle of Innovation by Tom Peters. Comment: Read first 1/3rd of the book as part of preparing for something at work. Also, got his book, The Pursuit of Wow! to read (had perused through most of it in 2004-05) but did not get the time to re-read it. These two books and Tom Kelley's The Art of Innovation, read early this year, are all 3 good books on innovation - which I should probably own. That said, Tom Peter's style takes some getting used to and I was initially put off by it - though he does say all the right things!

June 2006:

  1. The Complete Henry Bech by John Updike (20 stories..read 10 of them. As always..Updike is a delectable delight! Have read a lot of his short stories and am a big fan of his. Expectedly, enjoyed Bech too! Next on my list - Rabbit Angstrom : The Four Novels)
  2. Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz by Edward Burger & Michael Starbird. Comment: See my review here.
  3. Sky Burial by Xinran
  4. Throwing the Elephant by Stanley Bing

July/August 2006:

  1. A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe by Fernando Pessoa Comment: Read only the long introduction about the unique and strange life of Pessoa, and read a few poems.
  2. Modern South Asian Literature in English by Paul Brians Comment: Will reivew elsewhere later..
  3. Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel Author: Scott Adams Comment: Only skipped through first half of the book. Good but not too funny!)
  4. Modern South Asian Literature in English by Paul Brians, part of the Series Literature as Windows to World Cultures (Brians is a Professor of English at Washington State University, Pullman. He maintains a webpage on Common English errors, has a page on Resources for study of World Civilizations, and The Chernobyl Poems of Lyubov Sirota
  5. My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices by Lila Azam Zanganeh Comment: read a little bit about the book at my blogpost here...though I wish I had the time to elaborate more as I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
  6. Creators by Paul M. Johnson Comment: Read my comment here
  7. Also read about 20% of the following two books but having read many good book on physics and scientists, I was not impressed by the first one and hated the second one!
    Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette
    The Discoveries by Alan Lightman, whose Einstein's Dreams I had thorougly enjoyed reading almost a decade back!
  8. Collected Poems by Jane Kenyon (perused through this)

September/October/November 2006:

  1. Daughter of the Ganges by Asha Miro
  2. Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa by Antonio Tabucchi (Comment: The Dreams were boring..read and enjoyed 'The last three days', since it was only a few months ago that I had read about Pessoa's alter-egos with great intrigue while perusing a book of his poems. See July-Aug 2006 above.)
  3. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 ed. Dave Eggers
  4. Break, Blow, Burn by Camille Paglia (Perused through this.. maybe read 25% of it)
  5. Migration - New & Collected Poems by W.S. Merwin (perused through this)
  6. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Comment: Loved it and made me want to read more about Iranian history, which I did (see # 8). Also this and #7 provided me with an introduction to the graphic novel though they are more of the memoir genre and lack the imagination and art of the more famous graphic novels.
  7. Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi Comment: Not as enjoyable for me as the first one but still a good read.
  8. The Iranians by Sandra Mackey Comment: see my post reL #6, #7, and #8 here.
  9. 19 Varieties of Gazelle poems by Naomi Shihab Nye Comment: Sometimes simplistic, often brutal and gut-wrenching...an interesting inside-and-yet-outsider's view of the upheavels in the Middle East. A good read overall.
  10. The Gecko's Foot by Peter Forbes Comment: Read 4 out of the 10+ chapters. Fascinating stuff... also need to read Biomimicry by Janine Benyus
  11. Happiness by Matthieu Ricard Comment: Read the first 1/3rd of the book... a must-read for anyone (all of us?) who struggles with managing life to be happy!
  12. The Man Who Knew Too Much: : Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer by David Leavitt Comment: Read the first 1/3rd of the book. What a fascinating life - need to get back to this book sometime but for this month, Iranian history has taken up all my free time!)

December 2006

  1. Thinking for a Change by John C. Maxwell
  2. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., 4th edition - 1999
  3. Writing Down The Bones: Freeing The Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg Comment: Good book.. quickly perused through it but need to get it again, if I ever get around to writing!)
  4. Dear Ghosts, poems by Tess Gallagher Comment: One of my favorite poets, I had devoured her book, Amplitude - New & Selected Poems, more than a decade ago (Fall 1996) and had fallen in love with her poetry. So, I got this book with great anticipation and though disappointment is too strong a word, I did not feel the same magical connection. Her poetry packs an amazing force, nontheless.
  5. The haiku anthology - haiku and senryu in English (ed. Cor van den Heuvel). Comment: What a delightful collection of some of the world's best haiku. A must-have book for haiku enthusiasts.

January 2007

  1. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan Comment: Has to be one of the most disturbing ends of any book I have read... as always, McEwan is a difficult but very satisfying read.
  2. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff by Richard Carlson
  3. Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi
  4. The other 90% : how to unlock your vast untapped potential for leadership and life by Robert K. Cooper

February/March 2007

  1. Paris Review Interviews - I Read about 6 of the 16 interviews. You can read all Paris Review Interviews in this delectable online archive
  2. A man without a country by Kurt Vonnegut Comment: As always, his sardonic wit makes for great reading.
  3. The Meaning Of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman Comment: Transcriptions of 3 lectures Feynman gave in New Zealand in 1963. I read the first lecture where he very lucidly talks about how science works. The second lecture deals with the controversial topic about science vs. faith/religion conflict and is a bit difficult to read; though hearing it would have been a very different experience. Feynman is always a pleasure to read though...
  4. Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics by Robyn Arianrhod... Read the first 30-odd pages but need to get back to this. Started this but then got fascinated by Faraday and decided to read #4 and #5 below before getting back to Maxwell. Also plan to read other books on Maxwell - 1, 2.
  5. The Electric Life of Michael Faraday by Alan Hirshfeld
  6. Entertainment for Angels: : Electricity in the Enlightenment by Patricia Fara
  7. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

April 2007:

  1. Ordinary Victories (Le combat ordinaire) by Manu Larcenet - Comment: My first graphic novel - it won the grand prize at the Angouleme (the 'Cannes of the graphic novel world', someone called it) some years back. This book has parts 1 and 2 of the series and a third part was released last year and a fourth book is planned.
  2. Devadutta of 3rd volume of Osamu Tezuka's 8-volume graphic novel series, Buddha - Comment: Read only first half of the book. Read reviews here and here.
  3. The Best American Essays 2006 - ed. Lauren Slater - Read # essays
  4. Metamorphosis by Kafka & Peter Kuper (graphic novel) Comment: Read only first 1/3 of the book. This is a new genre for me and this book was not an easy one to read. Maybe I should re-read Metamorphosis by Kafka in its original text format again and then come back to this book. Also kinda perused through two other graphic novels this month - both award-winning ones by masters of the art - Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons and Good-bye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson - but somehow I did not take to either of these books and could not . did not really read much of either.
  5. QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman Comment: See my blogpost here.
  6. Everything Else In the World: Poems by Stephen Dunn Comment: Great poems. A post about one of the poems from the book is here. Also kinda perused through Collected poems by Lynda Hull and Man and camel : poems by Mark Strand this month but did not really justice to either books to say I read the books. Reading the introduction to the former, I was struck by Lynda Hull's amazing but short life and did read some of her gritty poems but was completely thrown off by Mark Strand's poems... eluded me thoroughly!

May 2007:

  1. Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis by Dan Rockmore Comment: After struggling through 75-odd pages of this book, I staged a walk-out. Life is too short to spend on books that are poorly written!
  2. Selected Poems by James Fenton Comment: If this is poetry, I am a genius poet! Enuf said - What a frustrating waste of time reading his poems were! I think many 14 year olds write like he does... I cannot believe he is such an accomplished poet.
  3. The Discovery of Subatomic Particles by Steven Weinberg Comment: I have so far read only the parts leading up to the experimental discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson around the turn of the 20th century but it is great to (re)-learn the basics of electrical and magnetic fields from a guru of physics.
  4. The Illustrated A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking Comment: My father had bought this book in late 80s/early 90s and I remember reading a significant portion of this now classic book then. However, I do not remember the details and re-reading this edition, an illustrated edition with great pictorials to go with the chapters, is great! Although I have read many (at least 12-20) books on cosmology and the universe in the last 15 years, I still find things I do not know or do understand or that my little brain has not retained from a previous reading of the same concepts in another book!
  5. Nonconformity by Nelson Algren Comment: Great essays... a couple of them are sheer genius and chockful of quotable quotes. I'll blog about this book once I finish it and link to the post here.
  6. The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets - Interviews with poets by Bill Moyers Comment: A great book - will have to buy it some day! Have read only 3-4 of the interviews so far but loved every single page of it. I think I appreciate and love interviews with poets even more than reading poetry itself. Poets are such wizards with words!
  7. Alexis de Tocqueville by Joseph Epstein Comment: Read the first half of the book. A bit dry and perhaps I would be better served to read Tocqueville's original classic essays on democracy than reading his biography - although it did provide some interesting insights into the man's early years and background.

Except for the first, second, and last book in the list above, I am still currently reading the others and hope to finish them in June/July.



June 2007:

  1. New Sudden Fiction ed: Robert Shapard & James Thomas. Comment: I am usually suspicious of very short pieces, as the authors try to do too much but this collection turned out to be pretty good. It is a collection of short pieces (4-7 pages long, at most) and the instant gratification provided by most of the short pieces was good for someone like me who seems to suffer from a shorter and shorter attention span as I grow older, blaming it on a lack of time to read for hours but more likely it is the indiscipline of not having enough patience. Oh woe!
  2. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders Comment: Brilliant. See my post about the book and the author.
  3. Paper Kisses by Reinhard Kaiser (translated from the Germany by Anthea Bell) Comment: The premise of a old fashioned love story in a different world than today is always interesting but I found this book too simplisticly written (a case of lost in translation?) and boring for me to keep me going beyond the first 30-40 pages.
  4. Writing Magic by Gail Carson-Levine Comment: A book for young adults, it still is a good start for someone like me trying to motivate himself to get into a habit of writing. That said, I read only half of the book and gave up as I was not really following any of the exercises the book recommended to start developing the habit.
  5. Nothing But You - Short stories from New Yorker Magazine, ed. by Roger Angell Comment: Some of the best short stories I have read recently. A great collection ...well worth buying! I read only about a dozen of the 25+ stories but enjoyed almost every one of them. Next on the to-read list: Victorian Love Stories: An Oxford Anthology edited by Kate Flint

July/August 2007:

  1. In The Gloaming - Stories by Alice Elliott Dark (Comment: Couple of the stories in this collection are really haunting and stay with the reader for a long time after reading them. In addition to the famed title story, which was included in The Best American Short Stories of the Century and Nothing But You, a collection of short stories from New Yorker Magazine, it was also made into a very moving movie, directed by Christopher Reeve, other stories that I found gripping include...
  2. Aya by Marguerite Abouet, Clement Oubrerie Comment: Graphic novel - Simple but humorously story about teenage girls growing up in Ivory Coast of the 1970s. It certainly was a different world back then compared to the civil war ravaged times today.
  3. City of Glass by Paul Auster, Paul Karasik, D. Mazzucchelli Comment: see my post here.
  4. Kate Chopin Portraits - compiled & introduction by Helen Taylor. Comment: Great shorts - I blogged about a short excerpt but this deserves a separate blog post by itself, which I will try to write some day soon.
  5. About Alice by Calvin Trillin Comment: A nice memoir and tribute to his wife. Like he wrote in one of his recent books - "I wrote this for Alice. Actually, I wrote everything for Alice". That's a tribute, if there ever was one. A short rumination about a love story of a lifetime, without being overly sappy or sentimental, as it very well could have been. Like her life, the book came to an end too soon. The last few pages were really poignant and well-written, but after recovering from this, I was left with the desire to read more of Calvin's books (Alice, Let's Eat, Travels with Alice etc.) in which he writes more about the good times he had shared with Alice.

6. The Secrets of Happiness by Richard Schoch Comment: I read the Introduction and the chapters on Hinduism and Buddhism. Identified a little bit with what was written in the latter chapter, the previous one, ironically, being too philosophical and abstract for me. Like Richard writes, one has to be open to various religions to learn what they have to say about happiness and improve our lives... and I gave it a good attempt and even, sadly, marked up the book (with penicil) for all the quotes I thought I would write down somewhere... but no... no matter how many such self-help kind of books one reads, our personality is what it is and what we do with our lives - our expectations and our decisions - is not changed or even influenced much by most of these books. I read them, often I concur with what they say, but to adapt these ideas and implement them is where the crux lies and there I fail.

7. The Secrets of Happiness by Richard Schoch Comment: I read the Introduction and the chapters on Hinduism and Buddhism. Identified a little bit with what was written in the latter chapter, the previous one, ironically, being too philosophical and abstract for me. Like Richard writes, one has to be open to various religions to learn what they have to say about happiness and improve our lives... and I gave it a good attempt and even, sadly, marked up the book (with penicil) for all the quotes I thought I would write down somewhere... but no... no matter how many such self-help kind of books one reads, our personality is what it is and what we do with our lives - our expectations and our decisions - is not changed or even influenced much by most of these books. I read them, often I concur with what they say, but to adapt these ideas and implement them is where the crux lies and there I fail.

8. The Happiness of this World - Poems & Prose by Karl Kirchwey Comment: I was very moved by the prose memoir, A Yatra for Yama - especially the first few sections that dealt with the author's uncle (who died in his early 20s in WWII), his father, and his grandmother. Amazing how a family's history lives with and continues to shape and affect one's personal life and outlook. In the latter sections, the journey ('yatra') made by the author to see his brother, who lives in a monastry in Northern India was no doubt a very personal one although it was difficult for me to feel the connection at times... but I loved the way it ended. We all have to define our individual spaces and destinies for ourselves. Did not get around to reading or enjoying the poems.

September 2007:
  1. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra Comment: Tried to finish this 900-page much looked forward to book of the year... but failed. The story, despite its cat-and-mouse game and attempted thriller is just simply too long to sustain interest. It could have been a good 400 page book (I got to 550 pages almost, skipping a total of about 50-70 pages along the way) but seems like the author just did not edit anything at all. So, while it is good in parts, it is definitely not good literature and even failed due to its verbosity as a pulp fiction thriller. The same old gaalis got old after a while and I started wondering if life was long enough to waste on this book - just to say I completed a 900 page book. Like I wrote elsewhere, the mind craved for some good writing talent after a while, work got busy, and the book could not be renewed again at the library and so I decided to pull the plug and save myself from the misery. The novel was rich with some interesting characters but after a while you start wondering what the point is. Enough said.
  2. Numbers in the DarkAnd Other Stories by Italo Calvino (translated by Tim Park) Comment: This book was everything that Sacred Games was not. Short, crisp short vignettes in some cases but that stayed with you for long after you were done reading it and almost demanded a re-read in some times just to enjoy the writing. Even in translation, the writing was so beautiful. A true piece of art - left me wanting to read more of Calvino, who I have only heard of for the first time when I picked up this book.

October 2007:
  1. The Counterlife by Phillip Roth
  2. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
  3. The Professor's Daughter (graphic novel) by Joann Sfar & Emmanuel Guibert
  4. Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster

November 2007:

  1. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca Comment: Interesting book, maybe just because its by Iacocca. Will blog about it elsewhere later.
  2. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 Comment: Read> 60-65% of the book..just did not get the time to read all the essays. Some of the essays were real good. The first 20-30 pages tried something new but in my opinion the experiment failed. The book could have done without those arbitrary of 'ten best headlines of the year' kinda lists.
  3. The Scientist as Rebel by Freeman Dyson (Comment: Have posted a few blog posts - 1, 2, 3 - about this fascinating book based on essays written by Dyson over the years, many for the New York Review of Books.)
  4. The Pushcart Prize XXXI ed: Bill Henderson (only partly read...)
  5. 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler
December 2007...and reading a few of these into January 2008.
  1. The Push Man and Other Stories (graphic novel) by Yoshihiro Tatsumi Comment: Great short pieces, though they all were a somewhat depressing look at life)
  2. Darwin's Origin of Species by Janet Browne Comment: Great bio of Darwin and a good introduction to many of the other scientists (or naturalists) who were thinking about these (r)evolutionary ideas in the 19th century. That said, I need to read some other book to get a more thorough and scientific understanding of Darwin's theories and modifications to the same made since then by Mayr, Dawkins, and others.
  3. Making Love by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, translated by Linda Coverdale Comment: Great novel. Thoroughly enjoyable though I have not taken the time to excerpt much from the novel as it cannot be enjoyed and appreciated thus. Like a good French movie, this book has to be experience in its entirety to thoroughly enjoy the whole feel and ambiance, if you will, of the book. Toussaint is a great find for me and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
  4. Television by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, translated by Jordan Strump Comment: See my posts with some excerpts from the book - 1, 2, 3.
  5. Mogador by Alberto Ruy-Sanchez, translated by Mark Schafer.
  6. The Fabulous Fibonacci Numbers by Alfred S. Posamentier and Ingmar Lehmann Comment: See my post about this
  7. The Real Meaning of Life by David Seaman
  8. On Truth by Harry G. Frankfurt
  9. On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt
  10. The Man of Feeling by Javier Marias Comment: Dense intense writing. Read only first 20 or so pages. Need to read this when I have more time and concentrating on just 1-2 books at any given time! 

Note: Short Stories Collections: I used to list them separately initially but have realized my folly and include them in the above list these days.
The short story is exquisitely difficult.'- VS Pritchett

  1. World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung -- read 3-4 stories, 1H 2005
  2. God Lives in St. Petersburg by Tom Bissel -- read ~ half the stories, 1H 2005
  3. Natasha by David Bezmozgis -- read all stories, 1H 2005
  4. Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx - read 2 stories, July 2005
  5. Runaway by Alice Munro - read 3-4 stories, August 2005  
  6. Manhattan Monologues - Louis Auchincloss .. December 2005 Comment: Auchincloss continues in traditional vein with his tales of upheavals and social interaction between the rich and the very rich socialites of New York. I had read a few stories of his (can't remember which book - he is a prolific writer!) some time back and it is amazing that despite having the same background or milieu of characters, his writing is not repetitive nor stale.
  7. Mona and Other Tales - Reinaldo Arenas .. November-December 2005   Comment: Arenas is a dissident Cuban writer (1943-90), made famous in North America with his Before Night Falls, a memoir in which Arenas recounts his journey from a poverty-stricken childhood in rural Cuba to his death in New York four decades later. I have not read much of Marquez or other lauded experts of the 'magical realism' genre but some of the stories in this collection like 'The Glass Tower' and the title story took me on a bizarre strange fantasy and surreal ride. I certainly did not see where the story was taking me..especially the title story. However, Arenas indulges in the kind of magic realism that readers have come to expect of Latin American writers but simmering beneath this rhapsody is the strong feeling of disassociation in exile, political activism, and satirical rage. Also, I particularly liked 'End of the Story', the last story in the book and so I'll expostulate a little bit more about it. Per the Library Journal Review at amazon.com, he writes a 'moving and yet spirited elegy to a love lost to suicide and a country lost to politics. This story is set on Key West and in Arenas's own imaginary island of Manhattan-cum-Havana and is filled with Whitmanian longing, caustic wit, and articulate rage.'
    However, in my opinion, this was a story about himself.. the 'lover' the story's narrator loses to suicide and sets free after his death by scattering his ashes in the Sargasso sea between Key West and Cuba, is a part of Arenas himself, making his way back home to Cuba.. despite all earlier remonstrations against ever going back home. So, my interpretation was that the entire story was a talk between Arenas and his conflicted inner soul.
    It is interesting to note that the story was written in 1982 and I am not sure if he was already afflicted with AIDS then (probably not)..but Arenas, afflicted with AIDS, himself committed suicide in 1990.
    Here is a great quote from this story.

'Homesickness can also be a kind of consolation, a sweet suffering, a way of looking at things, and even of enjoying them. We can only triumph by resisting. Our only revenge is surviving..'

This quote about summarizes Reinaldo's struggles to make peace with being away from his beloved homeland Cuba, which he hated for what it had become. After one of the greatest descriptions (two pages of craziness) of New York city, a city he has made his home, he asks,.....
(Note: May 2006 - Problems on Blogger and my review got truncated. GRRR!!! I do not have a copy of what I had written here!)
  1. Ten Women Who Shook the World by Sylvia Brownrigg Comment: Just read 1-2 stories. Did not grip me and never returned to it amidst everything else I was reading at the time. (March 2006)
  2. Curled in the Bed of Love (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) by Catherine Brady - Comment: Just read 1 story - very good. Have to return to it some day... (March 2006)
  3. The Best American Short Stories 2005 ed. Michael Chabon Comment: Read two stories so far... Rishi Reddi's 'Justice Shiva Murthy' and Joyce Carol Oates' 'Cousins'. (April 2006)
  4. Talking to the Enemy by Avner Mandelman Comment: Read 3-4 stories. Blaaah! (April 2006)
  5. The Trouble With You Is by Susan Jackson Rodgers Comment: Read 3-4 stories. Good! (April 2006) 
  6. People I Wanted to Be by Gina Ochsner Comment: Think I read 1 story...never returned to it amidst everything else I was reading at the time. (March/April 2006) 
  7. A short journey by car by Liam Durcan Comment: Read a couple stories - need to go back and read a more - May 2006  
  8. The Prophet of Zongo Street by Mohammed Naseehu Ali Comment: Read a couple stories - need to go back and read a few more! - June 2006  
  9. Love in an Expanding Universe by Ronald J. Rindo Comment: Some very good stories - loved the book. (June 2006)  
  10. Close Range - Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx, including the very popular Brokeback Mountain. Comment: Hope to review later some day. (July 2006) 
  11. 2006 O'Henry Award - Short Stories Comment: I read only a few stories. Need to re-issue and read again some other day. 
  12. Love and Longing in Bombay by Vikram Chandra 
  13. Calamity and Other Stories by Daphne Kalotay Comment: Some really good stories ... loved what I read, which was 3-4 stories    
  14. Severance by Robert Olen Butler Comment: A very interesting writing experiment - 62 entries, each in the voice of a beheaded historical, mythical, animal or modern figure, make up the collection. Each is exactly 240 words, Butler's estimate of the number of words that could be spoken by a decapitated head before oxygen runs out -- this book shouldn't even be on this list considering I did not read more than a dozen or so of this rather morbid book. 

Last and final update: December 20, 2007. I will start a new thread for 2008 onwards elsewhere.

Posted by Sanjeev at Permalink.