Again yet another year when finding time to read was very hard but still managed to still carry on at least read enough to put up a list of sorts. No excuses this time as it was plain laziness and lack of time management. I started using the wonderful county library here and also got a Kindle towards the end of the year ( more on that in another post ) which considerably bumped up the number of books read.
As its such a short list have added some comments on some of the books
So without much ado the list
1. Leela's book by Alice Albinia : I really loved the previous non-fiction work by this author ( Empires of Indus) and picked this up with high expectation. That could be perhaps be the reason why I was very dissapointed with this one. This is a fictional tale set in modern India but its a sprawling epic threading so many different worlds with Ganesha as narrator and themes from Indian epics, re-incarnation, religious and class divide in modern India, homo sexuality and so many more things. Somehow the narrative lost steam very early for me and despite some good writing in certain stretches it was just not convincing enough for me.
2. Around India in 80 trains by Monisha Rajesh : Indian railway stories is something I really love and I have devoured lot of documentaries related to Indian trains. But there is really no good book on train journeys across India. Thats a statement from this book from Monisha Rajesh an NRI from UK who comes to India to discover the country through trains. After finishing the book thats the one statement I agree completely with the author. The book is not without its merits there are few stray gems about how Indian trains and system works but its mostly average stuff with choppy narrative and mostly personal experience of a 2nd gen NRI and might appeal more to foreign readers than Indians I guess
3.The Messenger by Markus Zusak : Had started reading and then misplaced the book and recently found out, technically not fully read but planning to do very soon so will have it on this list :)
4. Myth = Mithya by Devdutt Patnaik : This was a book I wanted to read for long and finally got around to reading this year. Hindu mythology and cultural practices and reasons behind it is a fascinating read. It was good to read about and understand so many things that are all around us as part of culture but to understand the possible origins to all these in such an easy to follow manner was what impressed me about this book
5. Skeptical Patriot : Exploring the Truths behind the Zero and Other Indian Glories by Sidin Vadakkut : Exploration of myth/history behind most email forwards with lots of humor thrown in
6. Seven secrets of Shiva by Devdutt Patnaik - really enjoyed this one and looking forward to reading more such books
7.Goat Days ( aatu jeevitham) by Benyamin : This was translation of a malayalam book recommended by Vaidya. Downloaded the book on Kindle and finished it in 2 days. Its story of 'gelf' dream gone horribly wrong for a poor young man from Kerala. Having lived for a while in the 'gulf' and with so many of my college batchmates living there and interacting with folks there I was aware that it was not really all that rosy and so many folks have it really tough especially those doing blue collar jobs. But this was something else, similar in some sense to the book 'What is the What' ... its about story of dashed hopes and survival and ultimately its a great story about survival of human spirit. Even in presence of most adverse conditions the ability to pick oneself up and somehow survive the ordeal was really inspiring in a sense
8. The Devil in Us by Monica Bhide : Stories with Indian diaspora in east coast US, pretty dark ones involving guilt, loss and alienation
9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn : guess everyone must have seen the movie by now, I wanted to read the book first!
10. The Martian by Andy Weir : Robinson Crusoe experience / Gravity movie type experience set in Mars, again thats just the gist but this was a fascinating read for the science involved and the general geekiness . Also a great story of survival and triumph of human spirit in face of gravest of grave dangers. Can't recommend enough!
11. Sachin - Genius unplugged by Suresh Menon : There was lot of hype around the SRT bio which seemed overpriced and possibly banal as Sachin is so non-controversial, so in spirit of things picked up this book which was compilation of articles/essays on SRT by lot of cricket writers
12. What if ? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Questions by Randall Munroe - This author is creator of xkcd - enuff said!
So thats the list , 12 ... not bad considering I had read only 3 books by Dec 2nd week, so there was lot of activity towards the end of the year like Dhoni - ODI innings!
As part of our annual tradition looking forward to the lists from my more well read cousins : @Vaidya and @Indu .. over to you guys!
