Indian Readers discussion
READING PROGRESS 2018
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Jayanth's obsession with books continues - 2018
Books I can't resist from reading for much longer OR Books I will definitely read in 2018:Weird, Mindfuck, Creative Plots:
1. Complicity by Iain Banks
2. Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey
Fantasy:
1. Complete the rest of The Realm of Elderlings by Robin Hobb
a. Rain Wild Chronicles quintet
b. Fitz and the Fool trilogy
2. The King Must Die by Mary Renault
3. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
4.
5. Read something by Guy Gavriel Kay
Sci-Fi:
1. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
2. Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
3. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
4. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
5. Read something by Iain M. Banks
6. Read something by Neal Stephenson
Classics:
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
2. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Crime/Mystery/Thriller:
1. Guns of Navarone by Alistair Maclean
2. Death and the Dancing Footmen by Ngaio Marsh
3. Night Film by Marisha Pessl
4. Glass Houses by Louise Penny
5. Read something by Neal Stephenson
General and Historical Fiction:
1. Ramses: The Son of Light by Christian Jacq
2. Regeneration by Pat Barker
3. The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland
4. The Clan of the Cave Bears by Jean M. Auel
5. Tai-Pan by James Clavell
5. Read something by
Re-reads:
1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - 1 time
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - 2 times
3. Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling - 2 times
4. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Louis Stevenson
5. The Hound of the Baskervilles - 3 times
6. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - 3 times
Read more works from these authors:
1. Franz Kafka
2. Anton Chekhov
3. Brandon Sanderson (Cosmere universe)
4.
Books Read: 1/100January
1. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
3. Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
4. Legion by Brandon Sanderson
Mod
I have already started working towards reading my physical books in the fag end of 2017. I have more than 500 unread physical copies at home. 😣
Mod
Syl wrote: "Good luck..I have already started working towards reading my physical books in the fag end of 2017. I have more than 500 unread physical copies at home. 😣"
500?????????!!! Woooooahhh! Please post a picture your collection some time, I would love to see it.
*500??? mind still reeling*
dely wrote: "Good luck!"Thank you! :)
Manju wrote: "all the best Jayanth!"Thanks, Manju! :) :)
#1. The Call of the Wild by Jack LondonRating: 5/5
This was an endearing, sometimes brutal, read. We follow the journey of Buck, a pet dog that finds itself in a pack of huskies and other dogs that pull sledges to and fro through snow stricken lands during the gold rush in the Americas.
The work the sledge pulling dogs, including Buck, are put through is gritty and soul tiring. Buck quickly adapts to the callousness that life demands under such wild and harsh conditions and to the tranquility of discipline and routineness of work. We see his primeval instincts, one that of wolves from which dogs descended, come into the fore during different situations and he quickly and truly becomes a beast of the wild that chooses to stay in the company of brutal humans for unknown reasons.
There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight.
Jack London blew my mind last year when I read White Fang, it was fucking brutal on my heart. The prose was beautiful and eloquent, pair this with the existentialism that is at the core of such survival stories, this book delivers the same punch in the gut such books produce. But this book wasn't as gruesome as White Fang. Buck eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack after it's final and most precious bond with humans is broken, completing his transformation that, after all is said and done, felt inevitable.
I'm going to read everything by Jack London in the next few years because these books are unique, at least I personally haven't come across any that give out the same experience that his books have given me.
At many points during the read, I had a strong urge to go and hug my dog, Tommy. And I did. And when Thornton presses his head against Buck's in a sign of love, I remembered all the times I do the same with Tommy and I cried.
This is Tommy with The Call of the Wild:
Mod
Rating: 5/5
This was an endearing, sometimes brutal, read. We follow the journey of Buck, a pet dog that finds itself in a pack of huskies and other dogs t..."
Nice.. and Tommy looks good too. :) which breed?
Mod
"
blurb sounds good. will wait for your thoughts on this one.
Manju wrote: "Jayanth wrote: "Next read."
Tommy is a street dog, we adopted it when it was a few weeks old, don't know the exact breed ☺️
Mod
Jayanth wrote: ""Aww, and he stays so quite to allow you to take the pics. Adorable!
I think I have seen the movie more than once and cried a lot. I don't think I will read also the book because I would cry even more.
Mod
"
Tommy is a street dog, we adopted it when it was a few weeks old, don't know the exact breed ☺️"
We too had a very same Tommy adopted as a street dog - male name, but was actually a female. She died defending us against a viper.
Syl wrote: "Jayanth wrote: "Manju wrote: "Jayanth wrote: "Next read."
Tommy is a street dog, we adopted it when it was a few weeks old, don't know the exact breed ☺️"
We too had a very same Tommy adopted a..."
Ooh... I'm sorry! :/ She was brave!! Our Tommy is also a she :)
dely wrote: "Jayanth wrote: ""Aww, and he stays so quite to allow you to take the pics. Adorable!
I think I have seen the movie more than once and cried a lot. I don't think I will read also the book because..."
Tommy usually doesn't like when we take photos. She turns her head away just at the moment we click. She was sleepy when I took these pics :D
There is a movie for The Call of the Wild? I didn't know that! But I won't watch it for the same reason you might not read the book :D I don't want to feel these sobby feels again :|
Jayanth wrote: "There is a movie for The Call of the Wild? I didn't know that! But I won't watch it for the same reason you might not read the book :D I don't want to feel these sobby feels again :| "Yes, and also more than one :D
#2. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuRating: 5/5
A gothic horror story of vampires that predates Dracula and one that might have heavily inspired the famous classic by Bram Stoker. This was an okay-ish book though, the plot was not too wide spanning or detailed as Dracula and it made the whole story feel underwhelming.
This is like very much like Dracula but where the main vampire is a woman. Also, the vampire and the main character Laura have sort of a romantic relationship, which I think might have caused much furor at that time considering the era when this book was published.
The mystery starts off greatly, with Laura relating to the reader via her notes about the earliest memory of her's about a strange apparition she has seen during a night when she was awakened from her sleep. This sets up the tone of the eerie and the gothic very well. The strange, knowing intimacy that Laura and Carmilla have between them even though their acquaintance with each other is still new foreshadows darker things, as Laura slowly realizes. But Laura is not a very good character, no proper depth was given to her and her actions and thoughts are frustratingly innocent and ignorant even though hard, evil, tantalizing facts are thrown in her face. The conclusion to the story is utterly unsatisfying and rushed, the explanations at the end equally so.
#4. Legion by Brandon SandersonRating: 4/5
Stephen Leeds sees hallucinatory entities, all having their own personalities and skill sets and he somehow stays sane with so much made up stuff going on in his mind. He receives a photograph one day, a photograph that should not exist. A photograph from a time before the camera was first invented. He deems it a fake, a hoax until more proof is provided by a stranger.
Now these two main aspects of the story sound fucking awesome, the potential these ideas have is incredible. The story builds up nicely, giving us more insight into the fascinating main character and his other hallucinatory friends who all seem to be very interesting characters on their own. The temporal camera in question, by its nature, might throw everything the world believes-in up in the air. For the camera can be used to look in the past and debunk or confirm existence of religious personalities, occurrence of certain events that all religions likely based their beliefs upon. This is what is at stake. But the potential is not utilized or fulfilled in my opinion. The ending was not satisfying, but I guess the novella was always intended to setup the next book in the series that is a not a novella but a normal length novel.
As I was reading this novella, I realized that Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson, a sci-fi novella published in 2017 and my first dip in Sanderson's literary ocean, might have had its roots in the idea behind Legion.
Reading Log - Week #1:I'm not finding enough time to read this year so far. Only 20-30 minutes at a stretch and I'm not liking it one bit. It's coming in the way of getting into the story of Gates of Fire. So I'm reading short novels/novellas so that I could feel that I've read something complete. 2017 started off at a blistering pace, I was able to push stuff out to make time for reading. I'm unable to do it this year :/ Hopefully I can pick up the pace soon.
Jayanth wrote: "Reading Log - Week #1:I'm not finding enough time to read this year so far. Only 20-30 minutes at a stretch and I'm not liking it one bit. It's coming in the way of getting into the story of Gate..."
This happened to me too last year, during a few months where I had really a lot to work. I switched to short stories for your same reason: I had the fulfilling feeling to read something without the need to suspend a story without knowing when I would have been able to continue it.
Mod
I'm not finding enough time to read this year so far. Only 20-30 minutes at a stretch and I'm not liking it one bit. It's coming in the way of getting into the story of Gate..."
Dont worry . Read when you can. That's the only way to go on.
I read whenever I am waiting for something or listen to audio while walking home. I always have a book open in my mobile for those stolen 2 or 3 minutes. But then, those should be mentally less taxing.
Mod
@delyI got the exact same feeling, so resorting to short books :D
@Syl and ManjuTrue. I do that too. I read or listen to audiobooks during my commute. But I'm feeling anxious that I'm not finding time and that's making these 5-10 minute stretches taxing. :| I'll try to calm down and enjoy whatever little I get to read :)
#5. Skin Deep by Brandon SandersonRating: 4/5
This series is a fun romp. If you go in without expecting an intricately setup world that one expects of Sanderson due to his epic fantasy novels in Cosmere, you'd not be disappointed.
Stephen Leeds is a unique character... or rather, he is an amalgam of a host of interesting characters and the way Sanderson uses his idea of a person accessing his memory through interaction with different hallucinatory entities that each have a hold over different parts of his knowledge and memory is so intriguing to read. It makes up for a very trippy lead character who is on the verge of being categorized as clinically insane if it weren't for this unique condition of his and his own awareness and control(or the illusion of it) over the condition.
In the second installment of Legion, we see him trying to find a corpse for a company called I3 before other rival companies get a hold of it. For the corpse contains valuable research data, data that has been injected into cells/DNA within the body as part of research on how to convert the human body and its DNA into data storage by means of gene splicing.
This is, as I said earlier, not a serious crime thriller. It's somewhere between that and being a casual, cozy mystery with scifi, urban fantasy setup.
One thing that disappointed me is that the temporal camera plot line from book #1 is not followed through in this novel at all. That made this story feel incomplete as the ramifications of the plot in book #1 are huge and Stephen should have followed through with working on the camera.
But this book ended like book #1. A huge and incredible technological idea is introduced and then we get to nowhere with it and the ending has been 'we will work on this and know what it actually is and how it works'.
While the endings were underwhelming, I can't help but have a feeling of foreboding that Sanderson is likely to have planned something fucking epic which combines all the magical-technological ideas he's using for the plots in Legion novels. At least I hope so.
#6. Candide by VoltaireRating: 5/5
“Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.”
This book is one of the best classics I've read. Not so much for literature or the plot, both of which are quite good on their own, but because of the nature of the book, the intention behind the satire and the courage of the author to call something out that would offend the majority of the world if they even understand what he's trying to say. This was a book written in 1795. This book is an incredibly hilarious, outrageous and insightful satire on religions, god, morals, society, war, bureaucracy,optimism and what not.
This book makes you question your idea of the world we live in and makes you question whether you are being blind to reality and twist it in such a way to achieve your own ends.
“You're a bitter man," said Candide.
That's because I've lived," said Martin.”
Our protagonist, one Mister Candide is a innocent and ignorant young man. He falls in love with the daughter of a Baron he works for. And she falls in love with him. But the Baron sees them sharing their first kiss in the garden and chases Candide away from the castle kicking his back repeatedly. Thus starts the violent and unbelievably tragic story of Candide. He learns metaphysics and philosophy from a fucking asshole called Pangloss who's philosophy it is to believe that - "We are living in the best possible worlds. So everything that happens is meant to happen and that it is all for the good. All is well."
Now this sort of optimism is all cute and what not when everything is going well or if your illusion of everything being well and good is not yet broken to pieces by the harsh realities of the world. Once Candide is thrown out of the castle, he learns that his lover had been raped and had her gut ripped open by barbarian invaders. He then is made to serve in a rival army who whip him on the back, thousands of them. He then finds his philosopher Pangloss in a nearby town, his skin all diseased and a part of his nose missing and begging for food. Pangloss relates to him what happened to him after Candide was thrown out. He apparently had a affair with a maid of the Baroness who Syphilis(a Sexually Transmitted Disease(STD) which he contracts and thus his current state. Candide questions the philosopher's belief that all is for the good after seeing these horrors but the poor, old fool Pangloss reiterates that everything indeed is for the good.
So these fools keep believing that all is well blindly even when the world is throwing into their face horrors like which we dare not think of. Which is what most religions do to people in general.
People say, "Thank God. His blessings are upon us, that is why we are prospering."
So when people say this, they think of themselves. What about the 1 day old child who died earlier in a hospital nearby through no fault of his own or any other? Had God have no grace or blessing remaining for that poor child? God picked you to prosper in your life and while being busy doing likewise for others, he did not find time to keep a new born alive, is that it?
This is a train of thought I always have when something horrifying happens in the world and people start praying to God. This book shoves this truth in everyone's face in the form of an elaborate satire.
“Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'
Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”
There is a lot of philosophical commentary going on the entire length of the novel, about life, hope, belief, morals, but mostly in satire and allegory but there is meaning and truth behind all of the satire, exaggerated though it may seem like.
Some thoughtful quotes from the book:
“And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.”
“Everywhere the weak execrate the powerful, before whom they cringe; and the powerful beat them like sheep whose wool and flesh they sell.”
“I know this love, that sovereign of hearts, that soul of our souls; yet it never cost me more than a kiss and twenty kicks on the backside. How could this beautiful cause produce in you an effect so abominable.”
Mod
Syl wrote: "Well.. .. good progress for someone who was lamenting about lack of time. :D":D Hahaha... I have no comments for that :D
#7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyRating: 3.5/5
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
What would we all do if we lived in a world where possessing books or reading them was blasphemy and a crime? What would we all do if the firemen who used to put out fires knock our doors down and set our house on fire to burn everything down, along with the books we possess? I cannot begin to imagine myself living in such a world.
“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
This book is sort of a mystery/thriller set in a dystopian society, but only vaguely. More than that, this book is an account of a fireman's personal journey from using a flamethrower to burn down books and houses to becoming a man who starts to have an existential crisis and tries to understand what exactly do books contain or why they are a crime to possess or read. This journey of his is nerve-wracking at different points making this a very intense read.
Having said that, the writing did not sit well with me that much. The writing was good, no doubt, but there was too much exposition behind every act or thought of Montag, the lead character. Every little thing in a scene is described in a flowery prose that gets old really soon. Montag goes into soliloquies very frequently and his observations of the world around him is again written with too many adjectives, like the thoughts of a hopeless romantic. And he actually was.
On one hand, I would like to think that this was deliberate because it is a way of showing the reader what the world within the book and the people within that world are missing out without books that they are burning. And that Montag was discovering this very thing about literature and language. On the other hand, this sort of prose pushed away the intensity of the events happening into second place which I did not want to happen.
I usually like such prose to be frank, but somehow, its combination with the setting of this book just didn't feel that right to me and my expectations going into this book with respect to the tone of the narrative did not help either. This is not a thriller as one would easily assume when they read the blurb of the book. So going in without that expectation might help.
Some quotes from the book:
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.”
“These are all novels, all about people that never existed, the people that read them it makes them unhappy with their own lives. Makes them want to live in other ways they can never really be.”
“The average TV commercial of sixty seconds has one hundred and twenty half-second clips in it, or one-third of a second. We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.”
Jayanth wrote: "#7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyRating: 3.5/5
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
What would we all do if we..."
I have this in my wishlist but never picked it up till now because I'm scared of the writing style :/
dely wrote: "Jayanth wrote: "#7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyRating: 3.5/5
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
What would..."
It's not that bad honestly. The story and the protagonist are interesting enough to make me give a pass to the trouble that the writing was creating.
#8. Charmed Life by Dianna Wynne JonesRating: 5/5
I guess I'll read the complete series, this book was good.
While reading this, I realized that J. K. Rowling might have had some inspiration from this series for Harry Potter, not in terms of story or characters, but the fantasy and magical elements. The name 'You know who', the moving paintings, chess pieces that are animated and so on.
Cat Chant and Gwendolen Chant are orphan siblings. Gwendolen is a witch and she is a very ambitious one at that. Cat is quite a mellow and reserved kid and stays in his sister's shadow as he is too afraid of everyone else in the world.
While Gwendolen is taking classes from a necromancer, a mysterious person named Chrestomanci comes and sort of adopts these two kids. They know that he was an acquaintance of their late parents but don't know who he actually was. They go to Chrestomanci's castle and Gwendolen is hugely disappointed that she won't be taught magic until she starts behaving like a mature kid, because she was a very arrogant, petulant child.
What starts off as the usual struggle of orphan children to adjust in a new home, with new people, new kids of the same age, pulling pranks on everyone because you are petty and jealous slowly turns quite dark as parallel worlds and incredible magical powers come into play.
The dark side of the story hit me pretty hard, such a cruel and evil idea would never cross your mind until half way through when you start to doubt whether everything and everyone is truly who they seem to be.
While this is not as intricate a fantasy setting as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it is still something a HP fan might enjoy as much.
Reading Log - Week #2:I was able to find a little more time than I could in the first week for reading. I read Candide by Voltaire, I absolutely loved this classic satire on optimism, religion and society. Must read for anyone who feels frustrated by the way many people are blindly optimistic and always paint a rosy picture of our world.
I read another Brandon Sanderson novella and it was good. I've never before waited for books from ongoing series. And suddenly, after these past 3 months, I'm not waiting for novels from Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, Elantris, Warbreaker, Legion by Sanderson. God, do I need to read a series that is completed. Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy is on my radar because I was able to find the first 2 books for cheap in a used book store recently.
Talking about buying books, my new year resolution to not buy a single book in 2018 lasted for about 11 days. 😅😅 So much for new year resolutions. 😁
I started reading "Altered Carbon" and this my first big book this year. The premise is very interesting. It's a noir, cyberpunk crime thriller sci-fi. Singularity has been reached, human consciousness can now be uploaded online and can be downloaded into any other body, so death is no longer an issue. But from whatever I've read so far, this consciousness upload, download business seems to be sinister, not much detail about it as of now.
Mod
@Manju But I read in many forums that this series is pretty dark, gruesome, gory and squeaky. 😅 I don't know.
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Em Lost In Books, EmLo is my Name, PIFM is my Game
(last edited Jan 14, 2018 10:43PM)
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Mod
Mod
Jayanth wrote: "Syl wrote: "Good luck..I have already started working towards reading my physical books in the fag end of 2017. I have more than 500 unread physical copies at home. 😣"
500?????????!!! Woooooahhh..."
500?? I must see your collection!
Manju wrote: "it is all those things but it is so much more too. at least read book 1."I will definitely try :D Omg, I meant squeamish, not squeaky, hahaha😂😂
@Manju Rape without proper justice being served quickly is dark for me. Human slavery or animal abuse without a parallel good character trying to undo it or fight for justice makes things less dark and easier to digest for me. So basically I think I will find a book hard to read if the protagonist is sort of an anti-hero with the overall character tending to the dark side and there is no proper plot line that tends to counteract the darkness. I don't think I'd be any hard to read if the dark won over the good in the end, but nevertheless, I need some parallel storyline that isn't dark to calm my emotions down 😅 Like Kennit from Liveship Trilogy. I think you've read it? He is the single most despicable character I've ever come across in all books I read. He made the series too dark for me and I had struggled with trying to get my nerves calm while reading his chapters. 😅
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (other topics)The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (other topics)
Company of Liars (other topics)
Company of Liars (other topics)
Charmed Life (other topics)
More...
1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
2. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
3. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Books Read: 9/100
January
1. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
3. Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
4. Legion by Brandon Sanderson
5. Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
6. Candide by Voltaire
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. Charmed Life by Dianna Wynne Jones
9. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K Le Guin