reading

• Books I have read
• Reading
• Top 100 books of the 20th century
• Top 100 books of the 20th century (Modern Library)

"Recent" reads

The list includes the significant books that I have read since 2001, with the most recently read books at the top. I indulge in quite a bit of light reading, a prescribed dosage of whodunits (Agatha Christie), Terry Pratchett and Wodehouse, most of which I don't include here.

• Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
• Howard's End, EM Forster
• Dissertation proposal, Aravind Sundaresan (I must have really liked this; I read it several times :-p)
• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
• The Russian Girl, Kingsley Amis
• Lady Chatterley's Lover, DH Lawrence
• A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
• Then and Now, Somerset Maugham
• The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maugham
• The Moon and Sixpence, Somerset Maugham
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
• Liza of Lambeth, Somerset Maugham
• 1984, George Orwell
• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
• Animal Farm, George Orwell
• Of Human Bondage, Somerset Maugham
• Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
• David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
• An Equal Music, Vikram Seth
• The Ground Beneath her Feet, Salman Rushdie
• Catch 22, Joseph Heller
• Hamlet, William Shakespeare
• Four Novels of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan doyle
• Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
• The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
• A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
• English August, Upamanyu Chatterjee

Of Human Bondage, Somerset Maugham

One of the best books that I have read. I usually gravitate towards authors whose style is less flashy but beautiful (I like Vikram Seth, but I find Rushdie pompous). While Liza of Lambeth is definitely lighter, and I found the Moon and Sixpence slightly impersonal, in this one Maugham plumbs the depths of human emotion and scales the heights of storytelling. A very personal experience.

A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

A whale of a book, in more ways than one. In the introduction, Vikram Seth says "Buy me before good sense insists / that you'll strain your purses and sprain your wrists." The latter is quite true; it doesn't make for easy bedtime reading. Quite an epic- 1349 pages. I rather enjoyed the whole book, the pace doesn't slacken throughout. The sub-plots are woven together rather expertly to make an interesting whole. Characters are well defined and are very believable. Lots of poetry. Although the story is set in the 1950s, it doesn't seem to be that long ago. Timeless Classic, eh? Vikram Seth got rave reviews for his herculean effort- here's an article about him.

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Hey, Shakespeare is cool. Frankly my motivation behind reading Hamlet was because Jeeves quotes often from this play. And some of the quotes are pretty hot stuff. The edition I currently have doesn't possess great comments, and I'm rereading it. This is good stuff. However to understand and appreciate it one may have to have a couple of reruns and have a good edition (Arden) with good footnotes.

Catch 22, Joseph Heller

Once you get past the first couple of pages which don't give you a sense of direction and leave you rather dazed, you find it is pretty good. At least its different. This is my second attempt at it. Yossarian struck me as a nut case the first time. Actually he is crazy.

Reading

I've been an avid reader since I was a kid. I enjoy reading, and was fortunate to have had a sufficient grounding in English literature at high school. Some of the books I read at school and enjoyed were Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), A Village by the Sea (Anita Desai) Twelfth Night (Shakespeare), St. Joan (Bernard Shaw), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte), besides several poems and short stories.

I didn't do much reading for quite a while after that. But since I started working for a living, and found that I had quite a bit of free time weighing heavily on me which could be better utilized in reading than wallowing in worry about the status of my applications to graduate schools. Incidentally, and not coincidentally, thats when I started work on this website and discovered the lists of great novels. I decided to let myself be guided by the lists and also my past experience. At the time I began, I had a nebulous dread of Literature, which I now attribute to inexperience. I expected some of the books to make for tough reading, but I was determined to put in the effort required to plow through them. Plow and plod I did through some of them. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to discover how much I enjoyed some of them.

I did have a fling with Lady Chatterly, early on and was rebuffed. (Update: I did finish it later and it makes me wonder why it was controversial as late as the 1960s.) I bought a copy of Dr. Zhivago, and dutifully plodded through it and fortunately or unfortunately (unconsciously or subconsciously) left at an airport terminal before I finished reading it. Ulysses made it to my home from the library, but not much farther. From what I read about it, it doesn't stand a chance. Does a book have to be difficult to be great? I don't think so. Conversely, if a book is difficult that doesn't auomatically make it a great one. I appreciate the fact that with some training you can get to appreciate and enjoy some books. Sometimes that is an advantage, sometimes it is not.

Top 100 books of the 20th century (source unknown)

I got this from Seenu's site, which has since disappeared of the face of the web.

1. The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
3. Animal Farm George Orwell
4. Ulysses James Joyce
5. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
6. The Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
7. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
8. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
10. Trainspotting Irvine Walsh
11. Wild Swans Jung Chang
12. The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald
13. Lord of the Flies William Golding
14. On the Road Jack Kerouac
15. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
16. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
17. Winnie the Pooh AA Milne
18. The Colour Purple Alice Walker
19. The Hobbit JRR Tolkien
20. The Outsider Albert Camus
21. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe CS Lewis
22. The Trial Franz Kafka
23. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
24. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
25. Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
26. The Diary of Anne Frank Anne Frank
27. A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
28. Sons and Lovers DH Lawrence
29. To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
30. If This is a Man Primo Levi
31. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
32. The Wasp Factory Iain Banks
33. Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust
34. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
35. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
36. Beloved Toni Morrison
37. Possession AS Byatt
38. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
39. A Passage to India EM Forster
40. Watership Down Richard Adams
41. Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder
42. The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
43. Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
45. The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
46. The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
47. Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
48. Howard's End EM Forster
49. Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
50. A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
51. Dune Frank Herbert
52. A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
53. Perfume Patrick Suskind
54. Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak
55. The Gormenghast Trilogy Mervyn Peake
56. Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee
57. The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
58. The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
59. Testament of Youth Vera Brittain
60. The Magus John Fowles
61. Brighton Rock Graham Greene
62. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist Robert Tressell
63. The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov
64. Tales of the City Armistead Maupin
65. The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles
66. Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernieres
67. Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut
68. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig
69. A Room with a View EM Forster
70. Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
71. It Stephen King
72. The Power and the Glory Graham Greene
73. The Stand Stephen King
74. All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque
75. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Roddy Doyle
76. Matilda Roald Dahl
77. American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
78. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S Thompson
79. A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking
80. James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl
81. Lady Chatterley's Lover DH Lawrence
82. The Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe
83. The Complete Cookery Course Delia Smith
84. An Evil Cradling Brian Keenan
85. The Rainbow DH Lawrence
86. Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell
87. 2001 - A Space Odyssey Arthur C Clarke
88. The Tin Drum Gunter Grass
89. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Alexander Solzhenitsyn
90. Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela
91. The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins
92. Jurassic Park Michael Crichton
93. The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell
94. Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton
95. High Fidelity Nick Hornby
96. The Van Roddy Doyle
97. The BFG Roald Dahl
98. Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess
99. I, Claudius Robert Graves
100. The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans

Top 100 books of the 20th century (Modern Library)

The 100 best English-language novels of the century, as chosen by the editorial board of the Modern Library.

1. Ulysses, James Joyce
2. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
4. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
5. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
6. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
7. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
8. Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler
9. Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
10. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
11. Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
12. The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler
13. 1984, George Orwell
14. I, Claudius, Robert Graves
15. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
16. An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
17. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
18. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
19. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
20. Native Son, Richard Wright
21. Henderson the Rain King, Saul Bellow
22. Appointment in Samarra, John O'Hara
23. U.S.A. (trilogy), John Dos Passos
24. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
25. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
26. The Wings of the Dove, Henry James
27. The Ambassadors, Henry James
28. Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. The Studs Lonigan Trilogy, James T. Farrell
30. The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
31. Animal Farm, George Orwell
32. The Golden Bowl, Henry James
33. Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
34. A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
35. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
36. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
38. Howards End, E.M. Forster
39. Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
40. The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
41. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
42. Deliverance, James Dickey
43. A Dance to the Music of Time (series), Anthony Powell
44. Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley
45. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
46. The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad
47. Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
48. The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence
49. Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
50. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
51. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
52. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth
53. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
54. Light in August, William Faulkner
55. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
56. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
57. Parade's End, Ford Maddox Ford
58. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
59. Zuleika Dobson, Max Beerbohm
60. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
61. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
62. From Here to Eternity, James Jones
63. The Wapshot Chronicles, John Cheever
64. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
65. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
66. Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham
67. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
68. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
69. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
70. The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell
71. A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
72. A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
73. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
74. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
75. Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
76. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
77. Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
78. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
79. A Room With a View, E.M. Forster
80. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
81. The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
82. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
83. A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipaul
84. Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
85. Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
86. The Old Wives¿ Tale, Arnold Bennett
87. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
88. Loving, Henry Green
89. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
90. Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
91. Ironweed, William Kennedy
92. The Magus, John Fowles
93. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
94. Under the Net, Iris Murdoch
95. Sophie's Choice, William Styron
96. The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
97. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
98. The Ginger Man, J.P. Donleavy
99. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington