Tagged to life....

I resolved to myself to keep the grandiose silence intact till at least the end of this month... but you know petty people like me just don't deserve being grandiose.... :)

I was half-tagged by m (I say half - because I am not sure it is me she meant - but the part about the lazy buffoon in that post reeked too badly of me) and now been unmistakably tagged by The Mystic.

So here goes...

Total books I own

About 100 of my own (that is when I get to raid all my friends and get back all that is mine) - and around 75 more - that I have a "right to inherit".

Last books I bought
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Last Book I read

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Currently reading

The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Memoirs by Pablo Neruda

Books that have had an impact on me

Almost everything that I read. I am a choosy book-picker, and go by recommendations and reviews (the very simple, shameless reason being the unwillingness wasting money experimenting on my own). But, usually the recos work well for me.

Anyways, would list the first few that come to my mind....

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig. Not because I understood all that he said. To this date, I cant really define what he means by Metaphysics of Quality - and I was royally screwed in a mock B-school interview once when I said I liked this book :) But, I found this book very structured and educative on Western philosophy. I read it first while
still in college. I must get to re-read this sometime.

2. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell. One of my very first serious reads. It is quite ironic that Orwell, who once fought on the Left, could have written the most dystopic novel against communism. There is something really sinister about the way he wrote this book - something very inhuman and savage - about describing the State that has grown beyond its purpose. Imagine him coming up with something like Newspeak to make his point. This fellow believed in what he said and it shows. And the thing that really scares you - is that most of what he said later came true. Things like Pravda in Soviet Union, Mao as Big Brother etc etc....

3. We The Living - Ayn Rand - Very very surprising that many "Randy" folks I know havent read this one. I dont think she came as close to realistically portray the "Multitude vs. Individual" conflict as in this one. A semi-autobiographic work, this is also where she is at her tale-spinning best. The three people in the lead are very realistic, unlike the make-believe world she spins in the other two - replete with supermen creators and mediocre parasites. A very moving, poignant tale.

4. A history of the world in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes - Very intelligent and a real class-act full of British dark humour. This is a book that is something like a bunch of short stories loosely tied up to form one novella. It starts with a retelling of the story of Noah - from the eyes of a pest that is actually an illegal stowaway in the ark. It goes on to parody many things in Christian ecclesiology and portray an alternate history for the world. The "1/2" in the title refers to a prose-monologue on love!!! A very quirky, thoughtful read. (Useless Trivia - Woodworm is an inspired pseudonym from a "character" from this book.)

5. The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie - For the pure enchanting word-play and allegories that has come to define the Rushdian Magic Realism. There is simply too much in this - levels and levels of appreciating the book. Something for you if you knew Greek myth, something even if you dont, something if you are a Rushdie freak, something if you are not. Again a lot of re-telling of history to amuse you... For example, did u know it was Carly Simon and Art Garfunkel who make up S&G, or "Blowing in the Wind" by Dylan was a shameless rip-off from an Indian rock band... ???? Pointless and trivial - but very amusing. A book that successfully tries to bewitch you - without making a point at all. Rushdie rarely makes a point, anyway :) In my personal list, this is tale-spinning at its best. (Midnight's Children too.. but somehow I like GBHF better)

5. Godel Escher Bach - The Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter - This is a must-read for anybody who is vaguely interested in Computers, Music, Zen, patterns, programming - well - I missed my point. Anyway, so do many. It is not immediately obvious what this book is about anyway. It starts to talk about one of the greatest musicians, then wanders off into some paradoxes, amuses you with some Escher paintings, then brings in some Zen mysticism, a few thought experiments here and there and then talks about computers and programming, all the while interspersed with some very intriguing dialogues by famous characters in myth and literature. It is easy to be misled into thinking that this book is something about everything. It is beyond a point in this book that you realise that this book is about how human mind works - and how self-reference is the single most important problem to be tackled while building computers. If I start explaining this book, I would end up becoming too technical. But, anybody who has been intrigued by how human mind sees the external world and itself - and what that means when we try to replicate that intelligence in computers - read this. (I think I came very close to defining this book. It is much, much more however....!!!)

6. Life of Pi - Yann Martel - have reviewed this somewhere. I loved the way the book ended.

7. The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis - Will review it sometime soon when I am fully finished. But this one is already a huge favourite of mine.

8. The Lord of The Rings trilogy - For the singularly mind-boggling history that Tolkien built around this. I wasnt too impressed with all the fairy tale jazz at first read. Probably the movies helped me to read this with a renewed interest. Among other things, this is a powerfully positive tale.

Books that did NOT have any impact on me

Very few. I enjoy most of what I read. I even have a quirky taste towards flippant, unimpressive and the "supposedly substandard" stuff. The only books I put down unfinished are unoriginal, melodramatic and deliberate stuff.

1. Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre - The only book I regret buying in the last few years. I haven't even finished this one.

2. Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri. I borrowed this one - so I am okay. I finished this - only because I had nothing else to do on a train journey.

Ok, I pass the baton to Indu M, H, PS , Zealous Zygote and Whoiscb.