jackofall.blogspot

Ganesh and Robbie tagged me.so here it is.

Total Number of Books I Own : will be around 50(provided the old paper guy didn't come in our street in india).My mom always made sure that i never crossed the 50 mark, she will find some means or the other to keep the average. Usually my books would become Date fruits, small plastic utensils, play thing for one year old neighbor’s scholar babies, a memorabilia that my friends never want to return, and many a times the books after serving its purpose on this earth will just vanish.

Last Book I Bought : Ashokamithran stories

Last Book I Read : House for Mr.Biswas -V.S.Naipual

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me :

In tamil:
I used to voraciously read Rani comics, still remember reading the james bond stories etc then i moved on to crime thillers from the crime novel group. Rajeshkumar, pattukottai prabhakhar, subha etc.I used to collect all these books i had the first 50 books of both rani comics and rajeshkumar's crime novel.

Then it was sujatha,balakumaran and it pretty much stopped there.I read couple of books of sujatha like "vairam" and this nice story that came in kalki "andhi varum neram" or something which later became a pcsriram movie,i read his story "anithavin kadhalargal" think it came in anandha vikatan, the story was pointlessly wandering, I hated it. stopped reading it in the half way and totally stopped reading in tamil after that.

1)Bharathiyar kavithaigal
2)Jeyaganthan short stories
3)ponniyin selvan
4)Irumbu gudhiraigal
5)vairam


In English:
My first books where off course amar chithra katha.I would have read N number of books of all the mythological characters. I still remember waiting for my dad in the evening to bring the book. I would grab it and run to the terrace to read it.I will come down to the house only after finishing it. The joy that those small things used to being.sighhhhhh.

Then it was noody and some lady bug classics on great kings etc.I switched to classics like dickens, R.L.stevenson etc.I read them and read them all.I read everything that i could get my hands on.I loved count of monte cristo and Moonstone.Then the progression was like Famous five types, shideny sheldon, jeffrey archer,arthur hailey,michael chrichton and modern literature.Ok,ok.. without much ado here are the 5.


Freedom at midnight

My first book by dominque lapirre and collins was "Oh jerusalem".I loved it ,they both had the skill to present history intrestingly. But when my friend suggested that we should buy "freedom at midnight" i told him, we didn't know anything about israel, so Oh jerusalem was ok.but we know everything about india and its freedom struggle. so why do we have to buy it?.But i bought it anyways and after reading the book.I felt stupid, for i didn't know anything about india's past.I love the book for making me become a gandhi fan from a gandhi basher and making me understand my country's history better.

Do you know what Nana apte was doing an hour before attempting to assassinate gandhi?.He was haggling with a taxi driver for 15-30 mins on a few paisas.Or the fact than jinnah kept the news of him counting his days cause of cancer a secreat.And mountabtten's statement that he would have never announced the partision if he knew it before. This book explains the life of maharaja's to gandhi's assassination in great detail and talks about the events that you never heard.Again it has taken a foreigner to give a non partisan view of the events that lead to indian's freedom.This book is an example of how history should be told.I feel this is a book that every INDIAN MUST READ.


The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

Pretty much my first book away from the sheldons and archers.The book showed me the power of words.I love it for its sensitive and beautiful descriptions.

"The sad priests dusted out their curly beards with gold-ringed fingers as though hidden spiders had spun sudden cobwebs in them."






One hundred Years of solitude

For intoducing me into magic realism and latin literature.I read salman rushdie and others but there is only one gabriel garcia marquez and this is his finest book.

"It rained for four years, eleven months and two days"







Romeo and Juliet

I saw "shakesphere in love" and absolutely loved.I bought this book the first thing next day.Love & Passion told in the poetic best.

"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." "






Walk in the woods

The book that taught me how a travelouge should be written.









I tag ramki , sugzter , balaji, keerthi, zero