Indian Readers discussion

Dear friends,
Please do quickly suggest books about India/by Indian authors for our Sept. read. I totally forgot to put up this topic and as its already 6th Aug, we dont have much time to put up the suggestions for polls. The first four books will be put up.
thanks,

The Legends of Khasak

any one, please, Siva Kumar

Bookless in Baghdad: Reflections on Writing and Writers by Shashi Tharoor

The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India - The Emerging 21st-Century Power by Shashi Tharoor

3's a crowd

Hero's Walk by Anita Rao Badami( I've read it, won't mind reading it again).

Smitha wrote: "any one, please, Siva Kumar"

I have removed the other books but they were the sequels of pyre of queens

Hey Samitha I wanted to ask a question but could not find suggestion page so asking here.....is there any better criteria to select books for polls?

The way it's now to select the 1st four books automatically, I really think our group should do better....may be a pre-poll where more books are allowed or something you moderators can think.....the reason for this is all the books suggested above( pardon me my friends who've suggested books there) are so little known, are not even available outside India and the books suggested by Suchitra and Manjit seem totally irrelavant to category( these are non-fiction and self help)......I thought non-fiction is different category.....

I don't mean to offend anyone here but I really think there are other readers like me who want to be a part of group read but they can't simply because they can't get these books outside India...

Neena wrote: "Hey Samitha I wanted to ask a question but could not find suggestion page so asking here.....is there any better criteria to select books for polls?

The way it's now to select the 1st four books ..."

I am sure that the members who live in India can't know which books are available outside the country and which aren't; they suggest justly books they like or books they want to read.
I don't remember why only the first four suggestions are put in the poll but I think it's because in the past everybody suggested a book and everybody voted for that book and so there were a lot of books with one or two votes and so there wasn't a real "winner". But I don't know if this is right, Smitha (or another moderator) will tell you better than me.
Also, if I don't go wrong, also non-fiction can be suggested for the group reads.

dely wrote: "Neena wrote: "Hey Samitha I wanted to ask a question but could not find suggestion page so asking here.....is there any better criteria to select books for polls?

The way it's now to select the 1s..."

I know what you mean...I'm not most tactful while saying what's on my mind....but I did not mean to offend anyone......may be there could be pre poll open for few days where everyone can give his/her suggestions (even more than one) and then it's upto moderators to pick the best 4 out of those....they can decide among themselves which ones to pick...as for my understanding motive of a group read is usually pick a book that's not too hard, not to easy, ll hold the interest of diverse group of readers and can be discussed with interest.....moderators can decide those 4 books and then voting can be done again...

And about non-fiction please please don't put them together in one category.....novice readers like me don't read non fiction a lot....there could be separate category for non-fiction..... no? and my appologies if anyone feel I'm trying to tread on somebody's toes.....

Neena wrote:
the books suggested by Suchitra and Manjit seem totally irrelavant to category( these are non-fiction and self help)......I thought non-fiction is different category.....

i will reply to this part alone and leave the rest to the moderators.
my nomination is not irrelevant since the only criterion for nominating a book was that it should be about India/ by Indian authors.

Hi,
1. As Dely pointed out, When there was no limitation for nominations, there were lot of books being nominated and each books getting one or two votes. This made finalizing on one book difficult. So we came up with choosing only first four for nominations so that we can have a clear winner.

2. About the genre of books, the theme “Indian Authors/Books about India” is not confined to any genre. As it is “Indian readers” group, we thought it would be ideal to have one book on India or by Indian author as group read. We have a separate genre-wise group read on each month as well.

3. The book chosen is purely on voting, so we go by popular choice. Irrespective of whether the book is lesser known or popular, if more members vote for it then that would be selected. In fact group read suggestions made us aware of some wonderful books which are not so popular.

Hope this clears all the confusion. We are open for the changes if the members feel there should be.

Happy reading.. :)

Adding to Anbu's comments:

If your book didn't find it's way to the top 4,there's always the next month..

As for choosing books available in a particular country,it may not be practical since 'Indian readers' has grown truly global these days.:)
And if you leave the book-choosing to moderators(Heaven forbid!!!) ,there's going to be a war among us ;).
We are people with deferring tastes,just as everyone else is.
Also that will result in missing out some true gems,just because these 5 individuals are unaware/uninterested in reading them.

If you don't want to wait, the best option will be a 'cozy read'.
If there's any book which you want to read and discuss,you can start a 'cozy read' thread for it.
This way you can find people interested in that book and have a buddy read totally similar to the group read.
Here's the link to the 'cozy read' folder: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_....
Also if you want to read/discuss any of the already read books,you can add comments and we can restart the discussion.

Neena wrote: "I know what you mean...I'm not most tactful while saying what's on my mind....but I did not mean to offend anyone..."

I am sure nobody felt offended by your words :)
It is never easy to know how to do with the group reads, I have seen it also in other groups on GR. Indeed, here it seems working fine because we have more choice seen that there are two group reads every month (one for India/Indian authors and one by theme) and we can choose if take parto to both, only to one or none. Me too, sometimes I can't find the books but I don't take it so bad. I am only sorry that interesting books have never been translated or that it is impossible to ship them to Italy.

Neena wrote: "Hey Samitha I wanted to ask a question but could not find suggestion page so asking here.....is there any better criteria to select books for polls?

The way it's now to select the 1st four books ..."

pre polls would be too time consuming and troublesome. And we do read non-fiction as well as fiction. As you see, this topic deals with books regarding India or by Indians (so naturally, those may not be well-acclaimed and easily available outside India). As for being little known, I feel sometimes its a blessing in disguise exposing us to a wider variety of authors and ideas. This is my personal view, let me discuss with other mods and get back to you.

dely wrote: "Neena wrote: "Hey Samitha I wanted to ask a question but could not find suggestion page so asking here.....is there any better criteria to select books for polls?

The way it's now to select the 1s..."

dely is right, once we had nearly a dozen books and 1-2 votes each
one can argue out saying the books with highest votes can again be put up for polls, but it is time consuming. SO we limited to first four.

Sherin and Anbu have explained everything so simply. I just shot off my mouth before scrolling down and reading other comments :D

so here are the four chosen ones:
1. the Legends of Khasak
2. Pyre of Queens
3. Bookless in Baghdad
4. 3's a crowd
Sorry, Neena. You were a tad late. I would have loved to include Hero's walk as I like books by Anita Badami. Do suggest it next time round.

hey guys, first thanks to all of you moderators for the response....I understand your point completely...and it's not about my book being selected or not..for God's sake I'm an adult:P.....I'm not sulking about my book not being selected..I allready have read that so it does not matter to me...I just thought we could see something more challenging for group read in Indian author category....anyways we book lovers mostly read for pleasure...so it does not matter if book is being discussed or not In group read....

yes, nicely put.