Once upon a time, I used to read like there was no tomorrow. In my teens, I used to finish the Jeffrey Archers, Sydney Sheldons and the Ken Folletts in a single day.
When I was doing my engineering in Tamil Nadu, there was this small library near our college. I used to go there once a week and borrow 3-4 books at a time. In a few months, I almost finished the FICTION section and the owners were so pleased that they started ordering coffee for me whenever I went there. And once in the hostel, I came across a very rare book, written by a prisoner about life in a notorious penitentiary. I also found out that my friend had borrowed it from someone else and had to return it the next day. I read the whole night, finished it at 6 in the morning and gave back the book to him. I was tired and sleepy, but very very happy.
Lately, I'm beginning to learn that the rate at which I'm buying new books and the rate at which I'm reading them - they are too far apart. Take a look at all the books I haven't started reading or haven't finished:
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey
The Best Loved Poems of the American People (Publisher - Doubleday)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Songs in Ordinary Time - Mary McGarry Morris
The Complete Stories - Franz Kafka
The Birth of Tragedy - Friedrich Nietzsche (complex compared to "Beyond Good and Evil" and "Thus Spake Zarathustra")
The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann
I seriously need to do something about this. Maybe I need to buy more!!
13 comments:
may be you have other priorities in life which require your attention.
BTW, I haven't read any of the books you have mentioned. I have heard of a few of them.
Buy more. Yeah, right! ;)
But whatever you do, read Marquez and Kafka immediately. Life will never be the same again.
have read Marquez before, but i still have to check out Kafka.
yup, Marquez is brilliant!!
that prisoner book - Henri Charriere's pappilon? read umberto eco - my eternal fav. and kamus. he he he. chuck ur office and read ;p
Hmmm,something which i was thinking from longtime now,My reading habits have gone for a toss,thanks to the wageries of life:)
By the way,a small doubt,how about the last line being "I seriously need to do something about this.Maybe I need to READ MORE!!!!
Have a great weekend:)
Gosh I am going to creep into your house and steal your books.
bem: no, it's not pappilon. hard-bound, black cover, and about life at a death row prison. that's all i can remember:-)
alapana: i've been always saying "need to read more" but doing nothing much. so this time i'm saying "need to buy more!" :-)
dreamcatcher: ahhh...i will let you borrow them, please don't steal:-)
i think marquez has been mentioned enough in the comments already so i'm gonna rave about another one in that list: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. loved the movie. love the book even more!
and yeah, it never hurts to buy more! :P
you have seen the movie isha!!!
yup, am planning to buy more. on my list are - the chronicles of narnia and the naked lunch.
oh yes i have seen the movie! it stars johnny Depp and i've sworn to see every one of his movies! :D
Chronicles of Narnia is again a good read.. not the biggest fan of the movie though..
elf, i'm through with cholera. reading kafka now.
you won't find much humour in the list I mentioned. but try out the following, they are quite funny, and they also have life's little truths in them.
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
i like depp too, a serious actor. have seen quite a few of his movies. about his trip to india, you better ask blow:-)
Twilight of the Idols is a leetle complex too but Nietzsche always makes up for interesting reading. A pity he was born in the West. Had he been born in the East, he would have got enlightened methinx. All that brilliance and no way out. Ye must try Martin Heidigger too. His books were the Himmler's Bible.
magpie: almost missed your comment!
i have read a few paragraphs of 'twilight of the idols' too, but online only. nietzsche is always interesting but i feel his works are best understood and enjoyed, when our mind's at peace and when we have plenty of time.
i will check out Martin Heidegger. thanks for dropping by, i'll also check out your blog tomorrow:-)
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