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Reading Progress 2019
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Kavitha's Korner
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Kavitha
(last edited Dec 21, 2018 04:41PM)
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Dec 21, 2018 04:07PM
New year resolution to write better book reviews.
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Continue reading books in Indian regional languages.
visited 12 states (34.2%)
Buy Douwe's Machine Learning Book
https://douwe.com/projects/visited?re...
Andhra Pradesh
போர்வைக்குள் புகுந்த பூநாகம் - 2019
Bengal
The Namesake - Even though the story happens in USA, this book talks a lot of Bengali culture - 2018
Interpreter of Maladies - 2018
Bihar
The Curse of Nalanda - 2017
Himachal Pradesh
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World - 2017
Karnataka
Ghachar Ghochar - 2018
Kashmir -
Kashmir: Arasiyal - Aayudha Varalaru - 2018
Kerala
Inga - 2018
Bhima Lone Warrior - 2018
Madhya Pradesh
The Guardians of the Halahala the series. Set in ancient MP. 2017, 2018
Maharashtra
The Peshwa: The Lion and the Stallion - 2017
Shantaram - 2019
TamilNadu
Multiple books.
Uttar Pradesh
A Suitable Boy - 2018
Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana - 2018
HARAPPA: Curse of the Blood River - 2017
PRALAY: The Great Deluge - 2018
Uttarkhand
A Book of Simple Living - 2017
Continue reading books set by authors from the world.
visited 36 countries (16%)
https://douwe.com/projects/visited?re...
Going to start the list fresh for this year.
1. Inferno by Dan Brown. Italy & Turkey
2. Scotland. Scotland
3. Breakfast in the Rainforest: A Visit with Mountain Gorillas. Uganda, Central Africa
Mod
All the best!I like above all the challenge of authors around the world!
And I hope to find some recommendations for the Indian states that I'm missing.
Tamil books - read more of S. Ramakrishnan and Pa Raghavan and many new Tamil authors.எனதருமை டால்ஸ்டாய்: enatharumai tolstoy
போர்வைக்குள் புகுந்த பூநாகம்
Thank you for the wishes, Dely :) Planning to knock out few books from this list.
Wishing you a great reading year 2019, Kavitha :)
wow! the regional list looks good! My best wishes for a fruitful reading year :)
Happy reading 2019 Kavitha :-D
Mod
Started the year by finishing a book that I already started in December and a short book which I started and finished in a day. A decent start. Book 1: Inferno by Dan Brown. 5 stars
Started in December and finished on 1/1/19.
Has been a long time since I read a book by Dan Brown, already forgot his style. Yet another conspiracy theory to fight ever growing population. I liked the book very much as I got a wonderful tour of Italy by visiting few museums, in detail, and a little of Istanbul also. I don't know whether we already achieved the medical technology mentioned in this book. If not, it is futuristic too :)
The author also described Dante and his divine comedy which piqued my interest. Alas, the story is macabre for me to even try to attempt it.
Book 2: Two Old Women: An Alaskan legend of betrayal, courage and survival. 5 stars
Started and finished in one day.
An inspirational story that describe about two old women left behind by the tribe because of cold winter, and how these two old women find inner strength and their life-long experience to try and survive that winter and prepare themselves for the next winter. It's hard to believe that the tribe fared worse than these two old women as the tribe had many elders who should have been wise and many young men to hunt, however, they seemed to have faced worse luck. Eventually, the chief felt remorse at betraying these two old women and believed that the tribe's ill luck was because of their betrayal. The tracker of the tribe set out to find the women. When the small group found them, the women, eventually forgave them and gave spare food and furs for the tribe. Happy ending!
Thanks, Ini 😊😂😂 already started Aka....started the second chapter. Realized that I forgot the name of the characters. So started again and read few pages.
Mod
Hope to BR atleast a couple of great Tamil books with you!
Girish wrote: "Ah, the Indian challenges! Now all of this makes sense.. All the very best!Hope to BR atleast a couple of great Tamil books with you!"
Me too :)
Book 3: Enatharumai Tolstoy by S. Ramakrishnan. 5 stars.My nephew introduced me this author couple years ago. I fell in love with his writings right away. One honest author who write from his travel experiences and meeting common people. No wonder he got Sahitya Academy award for 2018.
His essay on "தூங்கும் கதை தேவதைகளும் நிலப்பரப்பின் தனிமொழியும் " forcibly reminded me that I once used to love bookish Tamil. Hopefully, I will read Kambaramayanam and other famous Tamil literatures.
An author who reads widely and register his opinions in the form of essays. This books also is a collection of essays where he shares his opinions about various authors, few famous novels of the authors and the background of the reasons those novels were written. He talks about authors from the entire world - Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Roald Dahl, Kazantzakis, Tagore, Kalapriya, Shel Silverstein, Virginia Wolfe, Peter Brook, Asimov, Qurratulain Hyder, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Haruki Murakami and others. He also talk about many Tamil authors like Kalapriyan, Puthumaipitthan, Charulatha, Vannanilavan and others.
The author describes the common theme underlying the books of each author, the magnanimity of Tolstoy (definitely need to read his writings!) and Chekov and the reasons for his respect of these authors.
I didn't realize that there are so many Tamil translations of some famous novels of these authors!!
Excerpts from Enatharumai Tolstoy - for Gorab.I was reading the background for Tolstoy writing 'Resurrection' novel. The essay started by saying that this novel didn't attract the readers attention like his other novels.....I like very much Maslava from this book. I feel she is like one of my Bhabhis. She is a wonderful person. There is something attractive in uttering the name Maslava. Tolstoy wrote a lot about prostitution. She is pious among them. In one way, through her, Tolstoy wrote about his search for the redemption of his soul.
The reason for sudden attention to this novel is because of reading Tolstoy's son Sergei's notes' collections called Sergei Tolstoy and the Doukhobors: A journey to Canada.
To write a novel, the writer will have some inner reason(ing). But it is amazing to know the reason for Tolstoy to write this novel (Resurrection).
KS notes: He wrote to help Doukhobors to leave Russia and settle in Canada. Please see Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doukhobors to know more. They were penniless. To travel, he wrote this novel and paid the entire advance for them. He didn't write anything 10 years prior to this,
Continuing the translation...
Once, Tolstoy met the famous writer Victor Hugo in France. Hugo mentioned that the main job of a writer is to worry about the life of the people at the common (low-economic?) people. This had a deep effect in Tolstoy's mind. When he was in France, because of his discussion and engagement about basic education, he paid more attention to his work on reforms on education and basic facilities.
Book 4: Scotland by Nel Yomtov. 4 stars.A non-fiction book that really explain in detail about Scotland. I read this book with my son, who reads mainly non-fictions. I learned a lot and may read more in this series.
Book 5: போர்வைக்குள் புகுந்த பூநாகம் by Yendamuri Veerendranath. 5 stars.Reading Yendamuri after so many years and what a way to start!!
The book is written from the narrator's point of view. The narrator met his four friends after many years in Guwahati airport and they were stranded and had time to spare. They wager a bet that each one should tell a story and the person who told the least suspenseful story need to pay the restaurant bill. Each one told suspenseful story and stop at cliffhanger point without completely finishing the story and then they each gave marks to the other's stories. The narrator got least marks and so criticized another's story. Each one explained the reasons for the marks. Another person, who was narrator's friend, joined the group and bet another wager with the four friends of the narrator. Then he proceed to tell a suspenseful story with another cliffhanger. The narrator was to be the judge and said the new person was the winner. The four friends then proceed to tell their story endings and then leave for their destination. The narrator and his friend were the ones left alone. The story ends with their discussion.
In the end, it's seven stories and all of them were so suspenseful, I ended up finishing in one sitting as I was unable to put the book down. The last time I was unable to put the book down was for harry potter series.
Mod
Interested to get my hands on S. Ramakrishnan's book on Tolstoy.
4 small books only. I started Inferno in December but couldn't finish. I started the last book and thought to read few pages, but it was so good, I ended up burning midnight oil and finish it :)
Book 6: Breakfast in the rainforest: A visit with mountain gorillas.The largest primates, Mountain Gorillas live only in Central Africa and cannot be bred in zoos. There are only 650 in numbers and considered as endangered species. A photographer from USA took special permit to visit these mountain gorillas to take photographs before they become extinct.
Short and sweet book.
Read Premchand's short story Kafan recommended by Aka. Short story just explain couple incidents. Sometimes that leaves me longing to know more. But this story is tightly packed and left me satisfied. Story revolves around father and son, two lazy, no-good duo. Son's wife died in child birth. These two borrow money from people to buy Kafan (a cloth to be spread over dead body) but end up wasting the money on arrack.
What I couldn't understand is why there were no one near her during child birth.
Mod
I have room for picking up Thaneer Desam. Let me know if you want to do a BR.
This is such a great challenge, I will try to look at your list and read some books too!
Girish wrote: "Hi Kavitha, I have room for picking up Thaneer Desam. Let me know if you want to do a BR."
Let's start :) I need to upload the book to my kindle. This is my first attempt to reading poetry (in the intent to finish). I didn't realize that this book is poetry during our discussion.
I am game :)
Karishma wrote: "This is such a great challenge, I will try to look at your list and read some books too!"Thanks, Karishma :)
Book 7: Shantaram by Gregory Roberts. 4 stars.This book is one of the book recommendations by the library website. Also, wanted to read about Bombay/Maharashtra.
Lin, a criminal who was on the run from Australia landed in Bombay. He met his guide Prabhakar and we go along with him in his journey/tour in Bombay with Prabhakar. He live in slum after he lost money and become a first-aid worker/doctor. Eventually he get involved in gambling, drug dealing and then join Mafia to work for Khader Khan.
It was so hilarious and heart warming in the first half. It is fascinating to know how the underground smuggling world works with regards to gold, currency exchange and passport.
Until Afghanistan, Lin's world was full of goodness even with dubious friend circle and in fortunate circumstances. He didn't feel hatred. In Afghanistan, he realized that he was used as pawn. Along with him, I also felt wretchedness. The story that unfold after that seems to be dragged and the story wasn't cohesive. Seems like collection of events.
I wanted to feel good that the humanity is there. But the awareness that Lin was considered as pawn from the beginning just came as terrible surprise. Khader Khan and people like him seemed to be blindsided in the name of patriotism, do wrong things thinking they are doing wrong thing for right reasons. Terrorism is never right.
Book 8: A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson. 5 stars.For an AT enthusiast like me, this is a wonderful book! This is my second AT travel book. With his sarcastic tone and educative narrative of the history of the trail, Bill Bryson made the book more interesting. He did section hiking. Hope one day I will do section hiking.
In the first chapter, when he described his shopping experience of the hiking gear and trying to get to know the trail by reading books, I wondered whether he is trying to deter AT enthusiasts. The first leg was like thru-hiking with his 'interesting' hiking buddy and other encounters. The second leg is more of day hikes and small sectional hikes.
When he started explaining Pennsylvania, I was irritated by his digression from AT trail. Soon I caught up with his history lessons when he took me to Centralia which I heard for the first time. Thereafter, I went where he took me.
Even though they didn't finish the AT entirely, in traditional way, they did experience hyperthermia, lost way. a little contact with wilderness, valleys and peaks.
I visited few places mentioned in this book and walked AT trail as couple of day hikes. Hope one day.....
Book 9: Thanneer Desam by Vairamuthu. வைரமுத்துவின் தண்ணீர் தேசம்.சில மேற்கோள்கள்:
நம் வாழ்க்கை முறை உடம்பை வாழையாய் வளர்த்துவிட்டது. மனதை கோழையாய் வளர்த்துவிட்டது.
செருப்புக்கடித்து செத்துப்போகும் தேகங்களை வளர்த்துவிட்டோம்.
புலவர்க்கு மட்டுமே புரியும் சில தமிழ்ச்சொற்கள் மாதிரி - அவனுக்கு மட்டுமே புரியும்படி ஒரு புன்னகை புரிந்தாள்.
அறியாமையே அச்சம். அறிவே பலம். காரணம் கண்டறியாதவரை ஆன்மிகம். காரணம் கண்டறிந்தால் விஞ்ஞானம்.
பார்த்தால் என்பது கண்களின் வேலை. கண்ணீர் என்பதே கண்களின் தியானம்.
இதயம் கொதித்து ஆவியாகும்போது இமைகளின் மூடி திறந்து கொள்கிறதே அதுதான் கண்ணீர்.
Book 10: Rudranetra by Endamuri Veerendranath
Book 11: Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
Book 12: ஆதலினால் (Aadhalinaal) by S. Ramakrishnanபிடித்த, பாதித்த வரிகள் :
உலக யுத்தம், அதிகாரப் போராட்டங்கள், சச்சரவுகள், பேரழிவு யாவற்றிற்கும் வெளியிலும் உலகம் இன்னமும் புத்துணர்வு கொண்டு இருப்பதற்குக் காரணமும் குழந்தைகளே.
வாழ்வை அர்த்தப்படுத்திக் கொள்வது நம்முடைய செயல்களால் தானிருக்கிறது.
இந்த இரவில் மின்னும் இத்தனை கோடி நட்சத்திரங்களும் இவ்வளவு ஏகாந்தமான காற்றும், பின்னிரவின் ஆகாசமும், பூ உதிரும் மரங்களும் ஏன் மனிதர்களுக்குத் தேவையற்றுப் போய்விட்டது
மனிதர்கள் இல்லாதபோதுதான் தெருக்கள் அழகாக இருக்கின்றன. பகலில்தான் எத்தனை சண்டை, சச்சரவு போராட்டங்கள். நல்லவேளை உறக்கம் என்ற ஒன்று மனிதர்களுக்கு இயல்பாக ஏற்பட்டுவிடுகிறது. இல்லாவிட்டால் எவ்வளவு பிரச்சனை!
சாவின் வலியைக் கூட ஆற்றுப்படுத்திக் கொள்ள முடியாமல் வாழ்வு தரும் நெருக்கடி மனிதனை தன் வாழ்விடத்திலிருந்து துரத்திக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது.
‘மழைபெய்யும்போது தவறாமல் நான் ஓடிப்போய் நனைவேன். காரணம் அப்போதுதான் நான் அழுவது யாருக்கும் தெரியாது’ என்று சாப்ளின் ஒருமுறை குறிப்பிட்டார்.
எல்லா புத்தகங்களும் பேசக்கூடியவை. யாரோடு எப்போது எந்த மனநிலையில் என்பதுதான் சொல்லி விளக்க முடியாதது.
Book 13: Sadako and the thousand paper cranes by Eleanor Coerr.
Book 14: Welcome to Badlands National Park by Teri Temple
Boodi Khaki short story by Munshi Premchand
Started 2019 with the intention to write reviews on the books read, however, consistency is a strength that I am yet to master. Therefore, I decided to write one comprehensive post about the books read this year. I read 150 books so far. Most of them are very satisfying reads. Looking back, I noticed that I read both fiction (mostly fantasies) and non-fiction equally. I have read many series, yet to complete couple of them though.
Series read – complete and incomplete
1. Harry Potter including pottermore novellas by J.K Rowling - Reread them again as buddy read with Aka. What else you expect from Harry Potter fan :)
2. Fantastic beasts by J.K. Rowling - to be honest, I loved the movies even more
3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass - Waited for the seventh book for a long time. Since I forgot most of what I read, I reread the series. Loved them.
4. The Secrets of Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott - Interesting to note that this series started before Harry Potter series, though the interest came from Nicholas Flamel's philosophers stone. An unputdownable interesting fiction.
5. The Kingsbridge trilogy by Ken Follett
6. The Century trilogy by Ken Follett
7. Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb
8. The Spiderwick Chronicles and Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi
9. The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer
10. Khalifa brothers by Salman Rushdie
11. The Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor (few books, 3-5)
12. Death Note by Tsugumi Oba (few books, 1-5)
Notable non-fictions
1. The moment of lift by Melinda Gates
2. Becoming by Michele Obama
3. Uppu veli: The great hedge of India by Roy Moxham
4. Before we were free by Julia Alvarez
5. Educated by Tara Westover
6. Yuval Noah Harari’s books Sapiens: A brief history of mankind, Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow and 21 lessons for the 21st century
7. The Road Ahead by Bill Gates
8. The audacity of hope by Barack Obama
9. A river in darkness: One man’s escape from North Kore by Masaji Ishikawa
10. The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
11. Before we were yours by Lisa Wingate
12. A walk in the woods by Bill Bryson
Notable standalones
1. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
2. Third Twin by Jeffrey Archer
3. Shantaram by Gregory Roberts
4. A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman
5. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
6. The storied life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Read 21 Tamil books this year, among them following are notables
1. S. Ramakrishnan – Aadhalinaal, Kaan enbathu Iyarkai, and Enatharumai Tolstoy
2. Pa. Raghavan – Hitler and Moovar: A collection of short stories
3. La Sa Ra – Sindha Nathi and Keralathil Yengo
4. Aniladum Mundril by Na. Muthukumar
5. Thanneer Desam by Vairamuthu
6. Needhidevan Mayakkam by Annadurai
Wish I had read more Tamil books, started reading J.J. Sila Kurippugal and Sanjaram. Though much awaited books, couldn’t finish this year. Hopefully I will read more Tamil books next year.
Kavitha wrote: "A walk in the woods"Great reading year!
About A Walk in the Woods, do watch also the movie! It's a lot of fun! I've first seen the movie and then I've read the book. Both are very good.
dely wrote: "Kavitha wrote: "A walk in the woods"Great reading year!
About A Walk in the Woods, do watch also the movie! It's a lot of fun! I've first seen the movie and then I've read the book. Both are ver..."
I didn't know that there is a movie. Now I have to watch it :)
dely wrote: "The trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOF2L..."This one is about a different trail, starting from Mexico. Many thru-hiking have similar hiking experiences. May watch this one too. thank you :)
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
எனதருமை டால்ஸ்டாய்: enatharumai tolstoy (other topics)போர்வைக்குள் புகுந்த பூ நாகம் [Porvaikkul Puguntha Poo Nagam] (other topics)
Scotland (other topics)
Breakfast in the Rainforest: A Visit with Mountain Gorillas (other topics)
போர்வைக்குள் புகுந்த பூ நாகம் [Porvaikkul Puguntha Poo Nagam] (other topics)
More...
