Some Books I have Read & Would Recommend

[Cymba]

Originally Posted by sumitrocks

I bought the PG Wodehouse box set (10 books) with my fav character Jeeves in them. The books are hilarious!! Brit humour at its best...

Never really got to read a pg wodehouse though always wanted to.. suggest which title to pick up for a first time read

[chakrabirsingh]

i havent gone through all the 4000 posts but i think that someone must have already discussed THE ONE by Richard BAch.
that was one interesting, creative, mindblowing and 'some more such kind of words' book.
a must for voracious reader

anyways anyone knows about funny novels (like Inscrutable American)
do tell me the name plz

[sumitrocks]

Originally Posted by Cymba

Never really got to read a pg wodehouse though always wanted to.. suggest which title to pick up for a first time read

Actually you can pick anyone, but if you want me to give you a name still, try 'Right ho, Jeeves'....and if you don't die laughing...come back here and post your review of the book.

@chakrabir...try reading 'Almost Single' by Advaita Kala. And yeah, if you like Richard Bach, try Curious lives, The Bridge Across Forever, Illusions, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, There's no place such as far away etc.

[nostalgiuz]

Originally Posted by chakrabirsingh

anyways anyone knows about funny novels (like Inscrutable American)
do tell me the name plz

Making the minister smile...again by Anurag mathur...good read...

Cheers
Rj

[nostalgiuz]

Book: Shantaram

My Views:..After a marathon session of reading the book...I am lost for words...its like a roller coaster ride...and the best part about the book is the philosophy and the very clear concepts that he has managed to include while narrating a very gripping tale...man i take a bow to Gregory Roberts for the life he has lead and all that he has managed to endure...

After Fountainhead and Atlas shrugged...I feel this is another book that i can read a million times and still find interesting things to think about...

Rating...*****..()

Cheers
Rj

[dkny.jakhar]

Dear puys,I'd like to recommend an easy read to all those who are yet to experience the true bliss of reading...The name of the book is ...The Catcher in the Rye-J.D.Salinger.This book is about a 13-14 year old kid , whose name is Holden Caulfeld.The book is a first person description by the protagonist and it starts on , on a different note- telling us that the protagonist is kicked out of a third board school he's been send to.The narrator tells us that how he sees the world from his own range of thoughts/spectrum, and just do;t give a damn to what other people say or do.( I tend to relate with the character just because this is what my own life is all about.)the narrator (holden caulfeld) tells how he is fascinated with his brother D.B, and how he loves and care about his sister phoebe.This book tells us about a story of everyody's life , a pt or a moment or crossroads we are standing on and we cannot make a decision .With a generous use of words like Corny, F**K, A-hole...it makes the account altogther more interesting and at times hysterical.I rate this book 4.5/5....RegardsJakhar

[mysticwind8]

HI PUYS..

for any 1 preparing for interviews ..be it job wala or iim wala...I will recommend..."how can you move mt. fuji"....i really nice books with all teh weird questions you can ever think of in interviews and its really a fashion now a days in India to ask this kind of microsoft cult puzzles...so its a must read....google on it and you will find why i am recommending it...........

[fera]

sorry double post-will fill this with another review soon

[fera]

The Devil wears Prada
I am mid-way through the book but couldn't help post

The story of Andrea the Brown grad whose ambition is to write for Nytimes,a person who new every article in the last 7 years from the newspaper.
So when she settles for a job in magazine publishing,she expects a place where"people aren't given a job based on their clothes" .Thus she becomes Junior assistant to Miranda

Miranda-the women behind the famous Runway fashion mag.Damn good at her job.Darn famous and revered.

It's a job,they say,millions of girls would kill for.Well Andrea almost died

The dilemmas facing Andrea and ridiculous chores that almost drown her,are put forward with sarcasm.Works like a charm!I was little unsure about picking this one since Nanny Diaries turned out to be such a delight.Add to it the fact that the movie wasn't that funny either.But this is turning out to be good comedy,i know its unfortunate that Andrea almosts gets herself killed while driving Miranda's car to the garage,with her non-existant driving skills-but you just can't help but laugh with the sarcasm

EXCERPT
The woman showed me Madelaine's stitched-up belly and told me to drive very, very carefully because the dog was "experiencing some discomfort." Right, lady. I'm driving very, very carefully solely to save my job and possibly my life--if the dog benefits from this, it's just a bonus.

With Madelaine curled up on the passenger seat, I lit another cigarette and rubbed my freezing bare feet so my toes could resume gripping the clutch and brake pedal. Clutch, gas, shift, release clutch, I chanted, trying to ignore the dog's pitiful howls every time I accelerated. She alternated between crying, whining, and snorting. By the time we reached Miranda's building, the pup was nearly hysterical. I tried to soothe her, but she could sense my insincerity--and besides, I had no free hands with which to offer a reassuring pat or nuzzle. So this was what four years of diagramming and deconstructing books, plays, short stories, and poems were for: a chance to comfort a small, white, batlike bulldog while trying not to demolish someone else's really, really expensive car. Sweet life. Just as I had always dreamed.

PS-I feel that a lot of dialogue was lost by the movie,thats a pity,though Meryl Streep rocked -especially her delivery of "thats all" is perfect to the Hell

[morphi]

Follows are the books I read over last 3 years, and I enjoyed each and every one of them. There were many titles, names of which I have forgotten or they were not good enough to be recommended here. I may not be able to recollect whole of the matter in the book but if anyone wants to know general opinion on any of the book mentioned here, then he/she is most welcome.
During one of the mock interview feedback, person taking my interview was not ready to accept that I read more than 200 books since 2005, so I shot mail containing these names to him and now I am sharing the same here.
I hope it might be useful to someone here.

1. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 1
2. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 2
3. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 3
4. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 4
5. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 5
6. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 6
7. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 7
8. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 8
9. complete works of swami Vivekananda, volume 9
10. Brahdarnayaka upanishad by Swami Ranganathananda
11. ashtvakra gita
12. avdhuta gita
13. Gita as it is- by Prabhupada
14. universal message of bhagvad gita by Swami Ranganathananda, volume-1
15. universal message of bhagvad Gita by Swami Ranganthananda, volume-2
16. universal message of bhagvad Gita by Swami ranganthananda, Volume-3
17. Principal Upanishads by Dr. S Radhakrishnan
18. An Idealist View of life by Dr, Radhakrishnan
19. Tibetan Book of living and dead by Rinpoche
20. old path white clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh
21. The collected works of Sri Ramana Maharishi
22. Yuganta-end of epoch by Irawati Karve
23. Mrityungay by Shivaji Sawant
24. Partitions/kitne pakistan by kamleshwar
25. Siddhartha by Hermann Hess
26. Narcissous and Golmound by Hermann Hess
27. The glass bead Game by Hermann Hess
28. Ten thousand miles without a cloud by Sun Shuyun
29. Aghora- Robert E Svoboda-part-1
30. Aghora- Robert E Svoboda -part2
31. Aghora-Robert E Svoboda-Part-3
32. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
33. DNA by James Watson
34. Autobiography of Yogi by Yogananda Paramhans
35. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by M
36. Indian Identity of Sudhir Kakar
37. MIra and Mahatma by Sudhir Kakar
38. The Indians by sudhir kakar
39. Kamasutra by Sudhir Kakar
40. Being Indian by Pavan K verma
41. My life in my words- Rabindranath Tagore..edited by someone else.
42. My frozen turbulence in Kashmir By Jagmohan
43. Rebuilding sahajanabad-the walled city of delhi by Jagmohan
44. Code name God by Mani Bhowmik
45. History of western philosophy by Bertrand Russell
46. My Autobiography part 1 by Bertrand Russell
47. MY autobiography part 2 by Bertrand Russell
48. My autobiography part 3 by Bertrand Russell
49. Story of philosophy by Will Durant
50. Sophie's world
51. From Socrates to Sartre by T Z Levine
52. A critical history of western philosophy by Y Masih
53. Introduction to indian philosophy by Y Masih
54. Introduction to religious philosophy by Y masih
55. Study of comparative religions by Y Masih
56. Indian philosophy by chatterjee and Dutta
57. contemporary Indian philosophy by B L Lal
58. Indian philosophy by S Radhakrishnan, volume 1
59. Indian Philosophy by S R adhakrishnan, Volume 2
60. India's struggle for independence by Bipin Chandra
61. Working a Democratic constitution by Granville Austin
62. Indian constitution by Granville Austin
63. our constitution by Subhash Kashyap
64. our parliament by Subhash Kashyap
65. an introduction to indian constitution by d d basu
66. Indian economy by Mishra and Puri
67. Forgotten army by peter ward fay
68. Strangers of the mist -insurgency in northeast by sanjoy Hazarika
69. Naxalism by Prakash Singh
70. The Mughal world by Abraham Early
71. Clash of fundamentalism by Tariq Ali
72. profiles of intelligence by Brig tirmazi
73. Open Secrets by Maloy Krishna Dhar
74. Men who divided India by Zakaria
75. Indira Gandhi emergency and democracy by P N Dhar
76. The Dynasty by S S Gill
77. Through the corridors of power by P C Alexander
78. call to honour by Jaswant singh
79. in the line of fire by Musharraf
80. Kargil by Gen V P Malik
81. MY days with Nehru- Kashmir by B N Mullik
82. Chinese betrayal by B N Mullik
83. A critical survey of indian philosophy by C D Sharma
84. Adventure capitalist by Jim rogers
85. Courts and their Judgements by Arun Shourie
86. worshiping false gods by Arun Shourie
87. Eminent historians by Arun Shourie
88. The world of Fatwas by arun shourie
89. Secular agenda by arun shourie
90. Religion in politics by Arun shourie
91. Indian controversies by Arun Shourie
92. I dare- Kiran Bedi a biography
93. it's always possible-transformation of largest prison of Asia by Kiran Bedi
94. Journey through Babudom and Netaland by TSR Subramanium
95. world is Flat By T Friedman
96. The IITians by Sandipem Deb
97. Swami Vivekananda the living Vedanta BY chaturvedi Badrinath
98. confession of Thug by phillip meadow Taylor
99. men who ruled India by Phillip Mason, volume 1
100. men who ruled India by phillip mason volume 2
101. Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand
102. love at the time of cholera by marquez garcia
103. the insider by P V Narshimha rao
104. confession of secular fundamentalist by Mani shankar aiyer
105. Ayodhya- 6th december by P V Narshimha Rao
106. Ignited minds by APJ Abdul Kalam
107. Search for modern china - JOnathan D spence
108. Banker to poor by Mhd Yunus
109. eleven Minutes by cohelo
110. Alchemist by cohelo
111. Ramkrishna his life and sayings by Max muller
112. The martyr by Kuldip Nayyar
113. Security in south Asia by Banerjee, Major General Dipankar Banerjee
114. Cambridge Companion to Carl Gustav JUng
115. rogue States by Noam Chomsky
116. Indian Foreign services -history and challenges by J N Dixit
117. India's foreign policy -challenge of Terrorism by J N Dixit
118. Cessation of mind by Osho
119. The code book by simone singh
120. Jeffery Peffer's Human Equation
121. NO full stops in India by Mark tully
122. History of pornography by Hyde
123. Discovery of india by Nehru
124. Bitter chocolate by Pinki Virani
125. India's nuclear Bomb- Perkovich
126. Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
127. Life of PI by Martel
128. Early India by romilla Thapar
129. India's external intelligence by V K Singh
130. Raja-yoga by Swami Vivekananda
131. India unbound by Gurcharan Das
132. Kite Runner by Khaled Hossenie
133. Thousand splendid Sun by Khaled hossenie
134. How would you move mount fuji by poundstone
135. I am That by NIssargadatha maharaj
136. I am that I am by.....
137. Celebrating silence by Sri sri Ravishankar
138. God loves fun by Sri Sri Ravishankar
139. The art of war by Sun TZu
140. JD Salinger 's catcher in the rye
141. The prophet by Kahil Gibran
142. second sex by simone
143. My south block years by J N Dixit
144. Daughters of Arabia by jean sasson
145. The princess by Jean sasson
146. The monk who sold his ferrari by robin Sharma
147. Only love is real by Dr Brian weiss
148. many lives many masters by Dr Brian weiss
149. Phantoms in brain by Dr V S Ramachandran
150. Things fall apart by chinua achebe
151. Political ideologies by Heywood
152. politics by Heywood
153. political ideologies and its impact by Leon P Baradat
154. Political theory by OP Gauba
155. The namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
156. Half a life by V S Naipaul
157. among the believers by V S Naipaul
158. Beyond Belief by V S Naipaul
159. Animal Farm by George Orwell
160. Doctrine of Buddha by George Grimm
161. soul and structure of governance in india by Jagmohan
162. Memories of my melancholy whores by Garcia
163. The new life by Orhan Pamuk
164. we the people by Palkhiwala
165. we the nation by palkhivala
166. Men of steel by Vir sangvi
167. portrait from memory and other essays by Bertrand russell
168. The family by Mario Puzo
169. The godfather by Mario Puzo
170. Eragon by paolini
171. Eldest by Paolini
172. Lord of the ring by JRR Tolkien
173. The hobbit by JRR tolkien
174. Harry potter and deathly hallows
175. Harry Potter and half blood prince
176. Harry potter and order of phoenix
177. lets kill Gandhi by Tushar Gandhi
178. Mahatma, man his people and empire by Rajmohan Gandhi
179. Freedom at Midnight by Lappiere Dominique
180. maharaja by diwedi
181. Indian civil services by A B Datar
182. Princes of India by Copland
183. Exiled at home by Ashish Nandy
184. As the crow flies by Archer
185. Republic by Plato
186. everyone loves a good drought by P Sainath
187. 48 laws of power by Greene
188. Art of seduction by Greene
189. Inside CBI by Joginder Singh
190. Outside CBI by Joginder Singh
191. Into India by John Keay
192. The Chakra healing by Ian Simpson
193. Ageless body and timeless mind by Deepak Chopra
194. Ethics in management- vedantic perspective by Professor Chakraborty
195. The cambridge companion to Freud
196. Interpretation of Dreams by Freud
197. Guru of Joy by Gautier
198. Emotional Intelligence by Goleman
199. Working with Emotional Intelligence By Goleman
200. Social Intelligence by Goleman( currently reading)
201. A princess remembers by Gayatri Devi
202. Sexual secrets, alchemy of ecstasy by Douglas and slinger
203. Bks Iyengar =light on Pranayama
204. Motorcycle diaries by Che
205. Partha Chatterjee Omnibus
206. Modern myths locked minds by madan
207. The raj syndrome by Suhas chakraborty
208. Netaji Subhash chandra Bose- a biography by Shishir Bose
209. Springing tiger by Hugh Toye
210. one book on sepoys of british army in india by author forgotten( British council library)
211. The trouble with physics, rise of string theory, fall of science and what next by smolin( selected chapters read)
212. My experiments with truth by MK Gandhi
213. Louis fischer's gandhi

I haven't read much of fiction like that of Dostoevsky, kafka and likes, hopefully, I will get to read that also in near future.

Knowledge and wisdom can be differentiated by following analogy:
yathā kharaḥ candanabhāravāhī bhārasya vettā na tu candanasya|
evaṁ hi śāstrāṇi bahūnyadhītya artheṣu mūḍhāḥ kharavadvahanti||
Just like a donkey carrying sandalwood on it’s back knows only the weight but not the value of sandal,
Similarly, those who have learnt a lot of the śāstrās, but do not realise it’s true meaning live like the donkeys [unaware of the true value of knowledge].

cheers