And some more great news!

Guess who is coming out of his hibernation. Vikram Seth is writing a sequel to A Suitable Boy. And guess what its called, A Suitable Girl. Even for a die hard fan like him I have to confess that I’m a little ambivalent on whether a sequel would work. He’s said that Lata the protagonist of the epic novel, is looking out for a suitable girl for her grandson. I’d much rather have seen a brand new subject but well, I’m not complaining too much! And in true Seth style this one comes out in 2013! I’d be 30 then!! Dammit! Now I’m not so sure I want 2013 to hurry up!

 The good news however is this: ” In the intervening years, Penguin will also publish a new volume of Vikram Seth’s poems and a new book of essays.” So there is some Seth fodder for the remaining years of my twenties!

Of books and snobs

Us human beings love to slot. Put things, people, events into neat little compartments. Slot, label, praise, be indifferent, trash. And then regardless of individual merit, judge something based on its common label.

Which brings me to books. The elite set of people who “read” have formulated the unoffical caste system for books and reading. Classics and High Literature, The Middle Ground and Trash.

Now answer the following questions:

– Do you read Mills and Boons?

– Do you like / hate Chetan Bhagat?

– Do you read Chick-lit?

– Have you finished books because it is cool to read them and your “portfolio is incomplete” if you haven’t even though you could barely sit through the damn bore?

– How do you like authors like John Grisham, Jefferey Archer, Erle Stanley Gardner

– Did you read Enid Blyton as a child? Did you start off with Noddy or did you jump on the Famous Five / Malory Towes bandwagon

– Did you go through the Nancy Drew / Hardy Boy phase?

Be truthful and feel free to be as elaborate in your answers. Am going to make this a two part post, though I am going to type out the rest of it now itself…I promise I won’t cheat based on the responses I get and you have to promise me to give me honest answers and not what you think is the “cool” answer..

Book tales

 Filched this tag from somewhere…unfortunately I don’t know who it was..I clicked on some random link from someone’s blogroll and found this tag and copied it, before I could get the link, the window closed and I can’t for the life of me figure out who…this is a book tag and I found it very interesting…

A book that made you laugh: Anything Wodehouse

A book that made you cry: Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, A suitable boy by Vikram Seth, The Diary of Anne Frank

A book that scared you: Nothing comes to my mind!

A book that disgusted you: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, disgusted me in the sense that I was left wondering why some lives were like that…I was really unsettled reading it.

A book you loved in elementary school: Those cute Ladybird books of the Peter and Jane variety!

A book you loved in middle/junior high school: Ah this was the Enid Blyton phase…can I just leave it at that??!! Oh and I forgot Roald Dahl!

A book you loved in high School: The Diary of Anne Frank

A book you loved in college: A Suitable Boy and An Equal Music by Vikram Seth…I became his FAN then oh and Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Oh to be back in college again and have all that time!!

A book that challenged your identity: This is an extremely interesting question…will have to ponder over it and come back to this!

A series you love: Tougie…but I have to go with the Malory Towers …Perry Mason also!

Horror: Nah!!! I don’t get scared reading horror…nor do I get the thrills…so

Science fiction: Yuck! Read a bit of Crichton and Cook and absolutely hated the stuff..

Your favourite fantasy: I am not into fantasy..the only stuff I’ve read is Harry Potter and Enid Blyton’s fantasy works..Faraway Tree anyone!

Your favourite mystery: The whole works of Sherlock Holmes…what else qualifies!!?? Arthur Conan Doyle is the master!

Your favourite biography: Can I say autobiography? Lee Iacoca’s..

Your favourite “Coming of age” book: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Your favourite classic: Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell

Your favourite romance book: Love story by Erich Segal.

Hmm I tag everyone that reads this!! Please do take it up and leave a link in the comments section!

Book guide

Is this cool or is this cool??

Its a “tourist map of literature”..you type in an author and you get a list of authors that write in a similar fashion..

One in hundred

The NY Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2007 is out and I am proud to announce that I have read 1.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Damn!

Conspiracy of fools

That’s my current read…all about the Enron debacle…what’s more it resembles my Accounts text book…in size 🙂

This is going to keep me occupied for hopefully two days at least…very gripping…will update this post to review the book and hopefully I will do this going forward!!