thanks Vinod,
Clockwork orange is a great movie too, i still dont understand if the guy was actually reformed in the end or not, saw it a couple of years back...
slowly this thread is becoming a 'books cum movie' thread....maybe i should start a thread on great movies of all time....
Originally Posted by vinodks
As it is generally true, movies on book are not as good as books... In clockwork orange too few things were compromised, and one such thing is language... language of the book is very unique vernacular language containing more than 200 words which are not English words but these words are in dialect in Alex's world... like Droogs for friends... while reading novel you have to refer to glossary given in the end to understand but of course movie can't go deep into that... also in the end movie kind of fall short of aspirations in book...
anyway, I wanted to write short reviews of atleast some of the 180+ books that I have read (like writing 2-3 reviews per day for 2-3 months)...(have forgotten most of the titles too:-((() but its not possible becuz life is very busy... long time back I started writing reviews in enthu and it was tedious to do so... reviews of my 7 randomly favorite books(not top 7) is below.
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~vinods/reviews.htm
-vinod
It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given to a handful of metaphors. -J L Borges
------------------------------------------
-Vinod
Last edited by vinodks; March 24th, 2006 at 11:55 PM.
It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given to a handful of metaphors. -J L Borges
I was a great fan of his in my school days. I said I was and not am coz later I learnt that the chap who preached "How to stop worryin and start livin" commited suicide!
Sometimes I am horrified to find what a great n lasting influence books can have on one's life far profound than movies.
In my gradution years, I came across Upmanyu Chatterji's English August --- statutory warning: the book has a derogatory, although passing remark about Jats -- one helluva book and a chicken soup for existentialist soul. I starting feeling sort of dissatisfation creeping within me everytime.
I still curse a friend of mine who gave me J D Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye'. After going through that book that dissatisfaction and apathy of mine turned into sado-masochism and I started deriving pleasure in hurting others and getting hurt.
Thankfully I returned to some kiddish stuff later and had it not been JK Rowling I would not have suppressed the You-Know-Who within me, and might have killed someone or committed suicide.
Among the Indian writers, I really admire Jhumpa Lahiri, in Namesake the way she potrayed the characted Gogol -- terrific! I am lookin forward movie although I am dissappointed to know Mira Nayar would be focussing more on Ashima than Gogol.
Lest we forget Amitav Ghosh, now this man deserves a booker. The queer way in which the stroy goes in Shadowlines -- fluctuating in the past present and future -- and yet so absorbing. How two mutually exclusive sets affect each other and events happening in one part of the world impact the most an assuming and disjointed. Great is an understatement.
More later
Last edited by panward; March 25th, 2006 at 04:55 AM.
oooooooo nooooooo.............yar uu kittaban kaa saudaa kaadee palle na padyaa apnne te...........arr novels type cheej te aashiq type balaq padyaa karte school main........jee e naa karyaa kade...........thaare te bhot kitaaban kee naam seekh te liyee ........kitte seen bana liyaa karaanga ibb pachee..........akk manney wa bhi padh rakh isai arr wa bhi...........bera naa kakkhhaa bhi arr.................hahha.........
gd work done all ............keep reading nd adding here..........
Rozz Suraj Ki Tarah Ugg Kar Doobna Nai Chaahtaa..!!
JAI KILKII TAULL!!!!!!!!
Check 'White Mughals' by William Dalrymple coz never had any foreigner painted such an insightful picture of India of an era bygone.
I wonder no body has said anything about Nietzsche's works yet!!!
I have Thus Spake Zarathustra and Ecce Homo sitting in my office for more than 6 months, haven't found time to start them.
Last edited by chhillar; March 29th, 2006 at 02:34 AM.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds... Albert Einstien
I read Will Durant's commentry on Nietzsche in "The Story of Philosophy"... but why you wonder?... he was a great philosopher but his books aren't that popular... and we were talking about books, mostly fiction, not writers/philosophers... talking of philosophy would certainly have lots of other names too... Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Kant, Spencer, Spinoza(the best philosopher according to me), Schopenhauer, Voltaire, Hagel, Russel, Santayana blah blah blah... Read him, but be beware of his views on females :-))).. he had gone mad(as most of them go) during last 8 years of his life... a great thinker... atheist but lover of godliness... proud misogynist in obsession with glory...
-vinod
It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given to a handful of metaphors. -J L Borges
The Catcher in the Rye is good book... too bad you didn't like it:-((...
-vinod
It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given to a handful of metaphors. -J L Borges
I mean I loved the book and I still do. All said it was that it influenced me the wrong way (My signature will tell u a thing or two abt my intellect
Regards,
-Daksh
"Outside a dog, books are man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read."
-Groucho Marx
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran...A Great Book.
Easy read, not too thick and very good.
"Mine is a peaceful religion, I will kill you if you insult it"
Send it over here!..
Heard about this German philosopher’s work but never got a chance to read. By the way, they are many societies on Nietzsche name!
Just Finished reading English Patient, very good book, grips you and takes you to a world which is defunct and how four people alineated from it meet and find themselves.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it
- Oscar Wilde
Hi Poonam
you should read atomised by michel hollobeqc. Although a bit crude, it grabs the crux of the matter on the effect of european philosophers and their work on the society....none of them very directly refered though....
priti
Send it over here!..
Heard about this German philosopher’s work but never got a chance to read. By the way, they are many societies on Nietzsche name!
Here is your chance...ke yaad rakho ge daac saab!!!Send it over here!..
Heard about this German philosopher’s work but never got a chance to read. By the way, they are many societies on Nietzsche name!
http://www.publicappeal.org/library/...che/select.htm
Last edited by chhillar; April 8th, 2006 at 01:03 AM.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds... Albert Einstien
Thanks for the chance...oh..oh..I mean Link..
Just checked it briefly..looks interesting..
How? Wait for the next post.
Last edited by panward; April 12th, 2006 at 05:19 AM.
For all those who failed to follow James Joyce, smile coz you are lucky to have a wonderful company. No not mine (u aren't that lucky either
Novelist Sir VS Naipaul has lambasted literary greats from Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to "the worst writer in the world" Henry James.
Naipaul said Thomas Hardy was "an unbearable writer" who "doesn't know how to compose a paragraph".
And Ernest Hemingway "was so busy being an American" he "didn't know where he was", he told the Literary Review.
The Trinidad-born UK writer, who was knighted in 1990, said his own writings had been neglected in his home country.
"England has not appreciated or acknowledged the work I have done," he said.
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001 and is best known for A House for Mr Biswas and the Booker Prize-winning In A Free State.
"English writing is very much of England, for the people of England, and is not meant to travel too far," said the 73-year-old author.
The author slates Dickens for his "repetitiveness" and cites the experience of reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey as a revelatory one.
"I thought halfway through the book, 'Here am I, a grown man reading about this terrible vapid woman and her so-called love life.'
"I said to myself, 'What am I doing with this material? This is for somebody else, really."
But the author is more complimentary towards HG Wells, Mark Twain and his friend Harold Pinter.
It is not the first time the Literary Review has provided a platform for the author's strong opinions.
In 2001, he accused EM Forster of being a sexual predator and described Irish author James Joyce as incomprehensible.
I liked the title of post... thats how sentences are constructed in his novels... As for Naipul's opinions about other authors... well, he criticizes everyone, so his opinions don't matter much... he may be right about accusation on Foster... good that you mentioned Foster... it suddenly reminded me that there is non-fiction book called "Aspect of the Novel" by E M Foster... this slick book is introduction to criticism for general reader... he analyses works of all major novelists in world... I found his views very balanced and worth reading... I feel even though Joyce was great writer with strong linguist streak, its not big deal if he didn't noble prize...
Will look for more about the piece you mentioned... thanks for letting us know
-vinod
It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given to a handful of metaphors. -J L Borges
I am wondering how could I not mention this book before, the book that shook me, touched me, excited me, awed me, scared me, puzzeled me and much more.
Yann Martel's Life of Pi will do the same for everyone, the book is a great read (finished it in two sittings and say 7-9 hrs., couldnt resist). Its edge of the seat experience with a philosophy going as deep as pacific ocean itself where the book is set.
And for the starters well what is better than a little 16 year old boy from India ship wrecked in mighty Pacific with a Zebra, Hyena, Orang-utaan and a Bengal Tiger overboard.
Must read for everyone
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