Indian Readers discussion

Hi
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/...
This programme asked famous people what music would they take with them if they were to be stranded on a desert island. People interested in music would enjoy this.
But I thought we could do the same for books....
If u knew u were going to be left on an island for months......and u were allowed to take only 8 books with u,what would they be?...

8 books thats difficult. There are so many books I want to read and reread the ones that I have already read. Would definitely include the Harry Potter series but that would have take up 7 books. Here goes

Pride and Prejudice
Interpreter of Maladies
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
A House for Mr Biswas
A Tale of Two Cities
Les Misérables
The Lord of the Rings
Wuthering Heights

Done :D

Very difficult!

I would bring:
The Mahabharata (but not an abridged version)
The Bible
The Koran
The Upanishads
The Puranas

I can't think of no other :/
Perhaps Dostoyevsky but I am not sure.

I will buy an e-reader and load all my favourite books and the books I want to read in future... And this will count as one only rite? :P.. I will still have seven places left.

I can add few more micro SD cards loaded with as many books possible.. :D

Anbu wrote: "I will buy an e-reader and load all my favourite books and the books I want to read in future... And this will count as one only rite? :P.. I will still have seven places left.

I can add few mor..."

i was thinking of posting something of this sort..but the words "only 8 books " stopped me from doing so..so i think it would be a no.

Anbu wrote: "I will buy an e-reader and load all my favourite books and the books I want to read in future... And this will count as one only rite? :P.. I will still have seven places left.

I can add few mor..."

Before you reach the second book the machine would run out of battery he he he ... what will you do with e-reader in a desert island then? :P

Aravind wrote: "Anbu wrote: "I will buy an e-reader and load all my favourite books and the books I want to read in future... And this will count as one only rite? :P.. I will still have seven places left.

I can ..."

e-readers have the battery life upto a month I guess..

I am going to throw a big book at u Anbu! U kinda spoilt the purpose of this thread!......I want to get good recommendations of books people love to read again and again.....this way!....
Even if u have an e reader, I will ask one of the IT guys to build a program by which u cannot download more than 8 books and u have to choose them before u go off to ur island as the island has no net connection!....
And u r not allowd to use ur IT skills to hack either!

Aravind wrote: "Anbu wrote: "I will buy an e-reader and load all my favourite books and the books I want to read in future... And this will count as one only rite? :P.. I will still have seven places left.

I can ..."

LOL :D

Quran / القرآن الكريم,of course will be one of them. Others, I need to think :)

I will probably take pillow size books,so that I don't run out of them too soon.
So..

1) War and Peace
2) The Complete Works by William Shakespeare
3)The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories
4)Great Books of the Western World
5) Sampoorrna krithikal- Vaikom Muhammad Basheer

Suchitra wrote: "I am going to throw a big book at u Anbu!..

Ok chill.. Here is my list.. :)

The Kite Runner
The Alchemist
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
The Last Lecture
The Pillars of the Earth
Frankenstein
Ponniyin Selvan

I will be taking


Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges
Complete works of O.Henry
The Lord of the Rings
Ithihyamala ഐതിഹ്യമാല

Suchitra wrote: "I am going to throw a big book at u Anbu! U kinda spoilt the purpose of this thread!......I want to get good recommendations of books people love to read again and again.....this way!....
Even if u..."

I am with you Suchitra :D

Okay... tough, tough, tough!
1. LOTR
2. RK Narayan's auto-biography, My Days
3. Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
4. My Experiments with Truth, MK Gandhi
5. Krshn,ISKCON
6. The Old man and the sea, Earnest Hemmingway
7. Any Robin Sharma pick
8. Love Story, Erich Seagal

Parikhit wrote: "I am with you Suchitra :D ..."

I know You are always looking for chance to throw something at me.. :D

Suchitra wrote: "I am going to throw a big book at u Anbu!"
I used to have this huge dictionary at home. That would hurt!

thanks rosun and pari! what did u do anbu?.......u seem to generate an enthusiastic support for throwing books at u!

@suchitra..u dont have to search for anything to hit anbu..go to his room and you will find lots of biggies.that too packed and ready..(how does all books of A Song of Ice and Fire packed together sound to you??) :P

I think, the books I would need are:

Advanced Dummies guide on building a boat
Advanced Dummies guide on building a fishing rod and learning how to fish
Advanced Dummies guide on starting a fire with flint-stone
Dummies guide on survival on a desert island (it would also cover the basics of building a boat, fishing, starting a fire)
Robinson Crusoe (for motivation)
Dummies guide on meditation (assuming I would have lots of time for this)
Dummies guide on sending messages in a bottle
Condensation of holy books (all in one volume)

But perhaps I will be left on an island which has a fully staffed and equipped luxury villa, hey then I would take my lap top and write a book and hold a giveaway on my return!

Actually my choice of books would be those penned by Bill Bryson, Pico Iyer, Paul Theroux, James Herroit, Gerald Durrel, Somerset Maugham, Tahir Shah, and a thick tome of Calvin and Hobbes. I turn to books by these authors and re-read them again and again without tiring.

LOL

1. Little women
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Jeeves Omnibus
4. Agatha Christie Omnibus
5. Come tell me how you lie
6. Robinson Crusoe
7. Swiss family Robinson
8. Complete works of Kahlil Gibran

Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon)
Finnegans Wake (Joyce)
Divine Comedy (Dante)
Life: A User's Manual (Perec)
War and Peace (Tolstoy)
Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
The Decameron (Boccaccio)
One Thousand and One Nights (Various)

My List - Going for Entertaining and Inspiring here :P

1. Hitchhikers Guide To Galaxy Omnibus
2. Catch 22
3. The Kite Runner
4. It's not about the bike
5. The Count of Monte Cristo
6. The Fountainhead
7. The Last Lecture
8. Open

Suchitra wrote: "thanks rosun and pari! what did u do anbu?.......u seem to generate an enthusiastic support for throwing books at u!"

Well I never knew so many would help you.. :P

Vinoth wrote: "@suchitra..u dont have to search for anything to hit anbu..go to his room and you will find lots of biggies.that too packed and ready..(how does all books of A Song of Ice and Fire packed together ..."

First I have to hide those books.. :P.. or at least split them.. :D

Anbu wrote: "First I have to hide those books.. :P.. or at least split them.. :D "


:P

Rosun wrote: "Suchitra wrote: "I am going to throw a big book at u Anbu!"
I used to have this huge dictionary at home. That would hurt!"


LOL :D

Vinoth wrote: "@suchitra..u dont have to search for anything to hit anbu..go to his room and you will find lots of biggies.that too packed and ready..(how does all books of A Song of Ice and Fire packed together ..."

Picking it up would be quite a task!

Sherin wrote: "Vinoth wrote: "@suchitra..u dont have to search for anything to hit anbu..go to his room and you will find lots of biggies.that too packed and ready..(how does all books of A Song of Ice and Fire p..."

nopes..it wasn't :D

Okay, I've to tell this. I was mad this one time. I wanted to fling all the books on my desk in front my old man. Those ones were the syllabus books and damn heavy ones. They won't just move! At least not all at one maneuver :P

WHOvian wrote: "helloooo???????????????????????????????? is this thread for talking or something. give some space to people. I am new here and this group already sucks. biggest fingers up."

The threads here are for discussions, hence the thread of discussions follow. You can always share your views or expectations out of this group here,

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

my list would go ...

The Last Lecture
Full version of the mahabhratha
complete works of khalil gibran
book of collected Rumi poems
The Kite Runner
Parva
Nirakarana( a kannada book by S L byrappa)
Dhramasree ( a kannada book by S L byrappa)

I would take:

A Survival guide.
Some holy book.
A cook book.
And lots of Vampire books(so I don't get bored)

^^

1. Mahabharat
2. a dictionary
3. Life of Pi
4. Adventures of Tom Sawyer/Huck. Finn
5. A book on learning a language - say Spanish or Russian
6. Fredrick Forsyth - The day of the jackal
7.Catch 22 - Jospeh Heller
8. The rise and fall of the third Reich

the day before i leave for my desert, i would pick

1 james herriot
1 agatha christie
and 4 more out of the following list.....
and 2 that i have not read.....

the following list was when i was trying to make my list of top ten....
turned out to be top thirty.....
i suppose i could bring it down to ten if i think hard.....
not in the mood to do that right now!!

- if only they could talk- james herriot- and the subsequent 5 books too!
- evil under the sun-agatha christie
- ordeal by innocence-agatha christie
- the pale horse- agatha christie
- to sir, with love- e r braithwaite
- the adventures of kavalier and clay-michael chabon
- animal farm- george orwell
- little women-louisa may alcott
- roots- alex hailey
- the woman in white-wilkie collins
- the moonstone-wilkie collins
- the importance of being earnest- oscar wilde
- the picture of dorian gray- oscar wilde
- the gods themselves- issac asimov
- harry potter and the philospher's stone- jk rowling
- the return of the native- thomas hardy
- the adventures of tom sawyer- mark twain
- the adventures of huckleberry finn- mark twain
- right ho jeeves-pg wodehouse(actually cannot remember the name of the one i liked the best....)
- swami and friends- rk narayan
- bfg-roald dahl
- pride and prejudice- jane austen
- to kill a mocking bird- harper lee
- not a penny more, not a penny less- jeffrey archer

very hard to choose but I would pick something absorbing, complex, the books that completely swallow you up.....so here's my list

Anna karenina
The mists of Avalon
Master and The Margarita
The world According to Garp
Jane Eyre

now some lighter reads

A Proper Pursuit
The Princess Bride
Anne of The Green Gables

^"Anne of The Green Gables" is a huge favorite of mine. illegally bittersweet.

Kunal wrote: "^"Anne of The Green Gables" is a huge favorite of mine. illegally bittersweet."
I think this is the book everyone should read once in liftime....the best thing is one can enjoy it at any age....this is on top of my list for my kids to read once they are 9-10

Kunal wrote: "^"Anne of The Green Gables" is a huge favorite of mine. illegally bittersweet."

It was recommended to me many times. But when I should have read it, I was busy reading, re-reading, and almost memorizing Tintin, Asterix, Feluda and Professor Shonku. :)

ANswering the topic, the 8 books would be
1. Tintin(any, if possible all)
2. Asterix(any, if possible all)
3.
Gone for Good
4. Evil Under the Sun
5. The Remorseful Day
6. The Day of the Jackal
7. The Complete Adventures of Feluda, Vol. 1
8. World Without End

No heavy books, no serious fiction, if I am going to be Castaway-ed. I would be better off with crime, murder, blood, jealousy being topped with an ingenious detective.

Pity the topic didnt ask us about the music we would have taken!! :)

I will take lord of the rings set , hoping eagles will arrive (to give lift on return journey)

Hmmm....I can borrow ur books, right? You guys will be sharing enough to let me read them too, no? As for books I wouldn't want to miss,
1. Jane Eyre
2. The little Prince
3. Fountainhead
4. HP 6
5. Matilda
6. Pride and Prejudice
7. Crime and Punishment(coz i'll never be able to finish it :) )
8. A blank notebook (I'd probably write and entertain u guys)

i only want to have a magic-box with unlimited books