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Gorab's 2020 Reading Log
Mod
1. Blankets- 5 stars - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2. Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother - 4 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
X. 10000 doors of January - DNF at 15%
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it makes it much more interesting when the dots get slowly filled in.
here's to an awesome reading year ahead .
^_^
If interested look up : Albert Einstein's biography : His Life and Universe
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's India Wins Freedom
Both highly recommended
Also both reviewed on my blogger blog... look them up if interested
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it makes it much more interesting when the dots get slowly filled in.
here's to an awesome reading year ahead .
^_^"
thank you :)
Clueless because i don't know what my buddies will be reading.
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Albert Einstein's biography : His Life and Universe
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's India Wins Freedom
Both highly recommended"
Interested. Haven't read both. Thanks for the reco.
Good luck Gorab. Hope you find great books this year too
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(Plus Audible is now having Hindi! So might even pick up some hindi books)
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I'm game for Sahitya Akademi BR. Good to know about Hindi Audible, but I'm still not used to audio as preferable medium.
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1. मंटो की कहानियाँ - Carried over from 2018.. no active reading. not dropping from current read either.
2. Dhai Gharढाई घर - dropped it after 80. Sahitya Akademi. Very interesting. Somehow didn't read since early 2019.
3. The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo - Graphic novel on war. Non fiction. Small book but heavy on content. Will take some more time.
4. Nine Lives Unfortunate story. Was very interesting. Borrowed library copy. Had to return after a month (was going for a vacation). After coming back, library is not issuing it because they have misplaced the book :( Don't know when i will continue.
5. A Case of Exploding Mangoes - In love with the writer. Perfect combination of dark satire and seriousness. Nice punches. Was my bedtime read before the vacations. Will eventually pick this up sometime.
6. Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother - Actively reading. Memoir of film director Saeed Akhtar Mirza. Loving it so far.
7. Listen to Me - Will be a BR with Smi. Had read 18 pages on 27th Dec. Haven't picked up again. Will resume when Smi reads it.
8. Blankets - BR with Aparna. Completed it yesterday. First 5 star of the year!
9. Mrityunjay - Secret Santa Gift of 2019. Started immediately on impule. Loving it very much. Slowly sipping in and relishing the prose. Will be a group BR when others join in shortly.
Picked in 2020:
1. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer - Borrowed from library. Reading in a group. Will take quite some time as its pretty big and not a fast read.
2. The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Group read with Telegram buddies.
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And fate had a big laugh at my expense ..
( currently doing around 4 BRs and only one book on my own )
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4 of them with you at the top of my head:
Listen To Me
Emperor of All Maladies
Parva
Mrityunjay
10000 doors
:):):)
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Good luck for 2020 Gorab. I am keeping an eye on Gentleman in Moscow and Mrityunjaya :)
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Thanks Aps. Gentleman will be a group read. Going by the way, I think there will be more BRs with you, since the year started with one :)
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Tentatively around April.
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1. Blankets- 5 stars - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2. Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother - 4 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
X. 10000 doors of January - DNF at 15%
Blankets was an amazing beginning to new Year. Was a BR with Aparna. I was highly impressed by the emotions portrayed and the characters etched along with their family background.
Ammi was again a good memoir by a bollywood offbeat director, Its not about bollywood, but it has its moments as slight traces. The ideology and thought process involved to define an individual was the high point for this one.
And unfortunately I met up with the first DNF of this year so soon. It was picked to be a BR on Telegram group.
Mod
1. Emperor of All Maladies + Listen To Me :
Reading them in parallel with similar page count every day. Though time devoted to maladies is a lot more than the latter.
Around 200 pages in each.
2. Parva + Hit Refresh :
Started them both today morning. Picked Parva inspired by Smi and to get into a BR. Thought I'd read the blurb and prologue and then decide further. The first sitting had me hooked till page 34. Very interesting beginning.
Picked Hit Refresh inspired by Kavitha's review. Also it fits in with my quest to read more memoirs this year.
Around 34 pages in both.
At the moment all 4 books are 4-5 star kinda enjoyable.
Then there are others I'm reading:
Mrityunjay: Stalled at page 35. Waiting for other buddies to join in.
Case of Exploding Mangoes: This took a back seat in spite of being very very good. Dark humor. Excellent sarcastic punches. Feels like reading a better version of Catch22. (apologies for blasphemy if any!)
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Will pick up and start Emperor of All Maladies from today.
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Catch22 was the first book I DNFed after joining GR.
There's this challenge to give a book another chance. I have quite some famous books to choose from:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
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I think my list would be called "Too scared to start" and it would be a really long list!
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Let me guess your 4:
Midnight's Chidren
Catch 22
1984
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
And I'm guessing you would have loved all 4 of them. Needs a LOT of patience - most of these.
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My 5 are:
Catch 22 (Loved it)
Midnight's Children (Spectacular)
1984 (Hard Hitting)
Inheritance of Loss (Did not like it)
Balzac and the little Chinese Seasmstress (Did a BR with our group. Don't remember)
And I am setting up the shelf of too scared to start soon :D
Gorab wrote: "I'm clueless what I'm going to read this year. Will keep updating as and when decided.Prime Suspects:
Memoirs\autobiographies
Graphic Novels\Manga
Pick something one of your buddy is reading to f..."
Hey Gorab,
Buzz me whenever you're gonna start the Millenium Trilology. I am done with book 1 and was looking for buddies to read the next parts. Have you read any of the books & When do you plan on starting?
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3 read and 2 DNF already this year!
On one hand, I'm a sucker for any BR happening anywhere... on the other hand I'm not very flexible with my book choices I guess.
The reading partnerships are continuing good, though the book partners have shuffled:
- Mrityunjaya + Parva : Initially though doing them in parallel would be a bad idea. But its very interesting and working out pretty well so far.
M - 65 pages
P - 275 pages.
- Maladies + Hit Refresh: One on cancer, the other one on rediscovering the soul of Microsoft.
Maladies has lost its initial lustre due to way too much details. Still enjoying it. Refresh is really refreshing.
Emp of Mal : 275 pages.
Refresh: 60 pages.
Mod
Attempted to start Death Note Volume 10. But couldn't figure out who is who. So started re-read of Volume 9. Still missing some context... but not planning to start Vol 8 whatever happens. Bcoz it may lead to another recursion... and by the time I reach 8, 7, 6...1 - I'll be clueless on whats happening in Vol 10!
Lesson learnt: Death Note should be taken in a single shot.
I might consider redoing from the beginning if Vol10 doesn't makes sense even after re-read of Vol9.
Mod
Next book suspect: Nine Lives
As Maladies is due to be returned by 31st Jan, will try to resume Nine Lives from last year which I couldn't continue because the book was lost somewhere in the library.
Hahaha yeah Death Note needs to be devoured in a single sitting. I remember similar thing happening to me. I had read reviews with Spoilers to get out of it :p
I am facing similar difficulties with the assassins apprentice..have read the first few years back.Want to read the rest but don't remember anything of the plot or characters.
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Twist in the tale - busy for the entire next month with lesser reading time. Will Death Note be an infinite loop for me :?
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For the moment, death note took a toll on me, and kind of forced me to drop everything else and FIND that non-existent reading time. To the extent that the last volume(12th) was consumed in a single sitting, while the entire series took 8 months!
Other reads: For all the books which were running as favorites in parallel combinations [i.e. Maladies, Parva, Mrityunjaya], fate played such a cruel twist that ALL of them got dropped! And I'm clueless (to an extent) why!
Dropping out from Bingo cards, monthly challenges and any other challenge - "out" as if I was ever in!
So what am I reading then? No idea. Will be travelling next week with only Kindle as the companion. Lets see what (if anything!) catches my fancy.
Awesome job in finishing a 12 volume series. I am stuck real bad and your progress motivates to wade forward. Hope I'll soon summon enough courage to pick where I lost and finish the series
Mod
"Intended BRs:
A Gentleman in Moscow - with Resh, Manju - to begin after maladies
Draupadi - with Resh
Parva - with Smi
The Millennium Trilogy - with Manju"
nothing done (or even in radar) except Parva.
In fact, I have the same list for 2021 :D :D :D
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so the millenium series was not a total failure afterall
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Mine Mine Mine :)
Cloud Atlas has been the best of the lot....
Also read Travels on my Elephant which was good.
Daughter loved Ammuchi's story and we have enjoyed reading it multiple times.
Rest of the books have maintained social distancing!
Gorab wrote: "so the millenium series was not a total failure afterall"
Haha, Step 1 : Acquire : Checked
Mod
managed to read all 4. Vintage Indian translated fiction.
Pretty impressed by Krishan Chander.
three of them were pretty good. Didn't like translation of I Take This Woman. Got a Hindi version, and it was pretty good too.
strengthens my hope to continue on the journey of Indian lit :)
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi (other topics)Parva (other topics)
The Millennium Trilogy (other topics)
Draupadi (other topics)
A Gentleman in Moscow (other topics)
More...
Prime Suspects:
Memoirs\autobiographies
Graphic Novels\Manga
Pick something one of your buddy is reading to form a BR
Intended BRs:
A Gentleman in Moscow - with Resh, Manju - to begin after maladies
Draupadi - with Resh
Parva - with Smi
The Millennium Trilogy - with Manju