vinay87

Decline is an easy read Kylie! If we have the same edition (modern library classics) then it is a really decent read! Though it's unedited to be honest. Begin it and you will not be tempted to stop midway! Gilgamesh is a tiny book, at least the Penguin classics version is. Do buy it soon! I bought the Crystal book because I'm interested in languages for my book. I've only read Poe's Raven. I was hoping to buy this edition some day, or at least the complete Penguin edition but this was so much cheaper and looked so beautiful that I could not resist.

Got a good haul today 1. Treasury of World Masterpieces : Edgar Allan Poe : The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination; The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; The Raven and Other Poems. (Around $7) 2. The Epic of Gilgamesh 3. Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations (Books 1 - 3) (Pelican/Penguin classics edition) 4. David Crystal - How Language Works I haven't finished Gibbon yet but I can't wait to begin Gilgamesh!

Well, people see racism differently here. I've never experienced it, because I live in a metropolitan city, or a tier 1 city as it is called hereabouts. Yes, people are segregated a lot here. I don't remember much of the book, since I was 13 when I read it, but I will add it to my wishlist/tbr for this year and get it ASAP and I'll get back to you on that later. Yes, education is deemed the most important thing here. It's strange for a person to not get a college education here, and most choose Engineering or any science stream. Although don't get me started on the negative effects of that. Homophobia! Funny you should mention that. India is a decade or so away from accepting homosexuals though. I'd expect my kids to bring home their gay friends and go "hush in front of dad, he's old fashioned." I don't have any opinion on homosexuals, pro or against though. I am not curious enough to wonder about it, though I do believe every person has a bit of a homosexual in him/her — I know there's a scale of a sort for this, I read about it but I can't remember the name right now. It's too early for India and homosexuality imo. But then again, it could be that I'm already growing senile and prejudiced at 25. I've been wondering about this for a while, especially since as kids we were encouraged to find the "moral of a story" to take to our hearts. Gibbon's book really made me think why the Romans didn't learn from their mistakes. Even when their leaders were educated people. That's why I began thinking about this. Guess the fact that the question popped in from reading answers my question in the first place. Still, I'd like to hear any one else's opinion on the matter.

A fellow GRRM fan I see! The man is a genius but I hope he'd write more. He takes too long between books, so long that I've not dared touch his latest book just because I don't want to have to go through all the agony involved in the wait for the next one. I'd rather read once he finishes the series, if he ever manages to! And Tyrion is such an interesting imp isn't he! Wait till you meet Brianna! She's another wonderful character. Or is she already there? Nevertheless, enjoy the next book, imo it's the best of the lot so far!

Hello Julie, here's the reply I promised you. The bit about the broken household rings true. I can see the appeal in that story, in a way it's next to formulaic but it's always got something new to offer. Harry Potter stemmed out that way if you've read it. So did many other books. In a way showing a person's growth is a way to churn out all the advice a writer has to offer. It's an amusing bit of a cheat when it comes to that, but it's a cheat that we love to read. Racism always shocks me. Despite living in a country where the language spoken changes drastically with every 100 kilometers, where people eat completely different foods and have different likes and dislikes, celebrate the same festivals in shockingly different ways, I am a stranger to racism. I wonder if I've ignored it completely or if it is almost nonexistent here. The stories of racism from the west is always shocking. Thankfully yes, every generation improves. In some sects here non-vegetarian food is considered dirty and people will not eat in the same room as another who is eating meat, let alone on the same table. I am a part of that sect but I do not share the same views. I do not eat meat only because I see no reason to and have no cravings for it but I sit with my friends or even total strangers without any discomfort when they're eating meat. I think I'd be more appalled if they ate using the serving spoon than if they ate meat! Books show these things, opening a window to worlds unknown but what does that mean when we, sitting thousands of kilometers away, can talk this way? The world becomes smaller every day so what do books have to offer. Exactly! Medicine works best when it's foul tasting, I like to say. Although I wonder how strongly books affect us in this manner, life's experiences work well but do books share the same power? Or are we just overestimating the power of the written word? You made sense to me! That's what I mean. Books have that power to let you question your beliefs, but what do you take away from fiction? Books of history do help, those are real, but are fictitious stories just as real where their effect is concerned or do we subconsciously treat them any differently? I've undergone that same kind of fear, 1984 is the best example. The thought that everything we have taken for granted like innocent love can be ripped away from us and wiped away from our minds is really horrifying. I find such books scarier than anything Stephen King writes. Your thoughts about the death penalty seem interesting. How would you say you're feeling strongly about it now compared to before? You mean you're more adamant in your stance against it now than you were earlier? Was that because you sympathized with the character? I'm curious from a writer's point of view here now. Julie, maybe you could try asking in the "what is the name of that book" section of the forum. Silly me, the irony being I've forgotten the name of that part of the forum! A book about statistical interpretations? Whoa, that's the last placed I'd have expected advice to lurk around. The Graham Green book seems interesting, been a decade since I've read anything by him. As to your thoughts, yes I see how change can be tiny. But isn't that all that's needed? If we can, to use Julie's example, make one racist question his character just a tiny bit, wouldn't that increase with rereads?

Hi Julie! Thanks for reminding me about Mistry's book. I read it as a teenager and it flew over my head. I must revisit it soon. I do agree about the books that sound depressing. They have a stronger dosage of the medicine we require, I believe. Happier lessons teaching us to thank nature for the wonderful life we have just aren't strong enough for us to absorb. Or that's just my view. I think we take in sterner lessons easily than softer ones. An interesting thing to notice! I will post more on this tomorrow once I return from work.

I've been reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and throughout my read I'm finding myself wondering why we never read books like these in school. Assuredly I'd not have understood the content of it back then and I'd have found it boring but surely they'd have made better lessons than the ones we've had. The one thing I've always wondered is if we pay attention to the lessons taught by history or by the wisdom of writers. Sure we have bad writers now that a greater section of humanity is being educated, but we've had lessons handed down to us by people dead for centuries, if not millenia. Do we learn from them? I might be asking this out of boredom, and if it doesn't make any sense let me know, but I honestly wonder if we do change because of the books we read. After this book, I've changed, perhaps much more than I thought I have. I do not know if that's happening every time I read a book. I do know some books contain that potential more than others. 1984 frightened me more than any other book around. To be honest something like that is happening here in India. The government wants to take action against Google and Facebook for letting people have debates about religion and to "write defamatory articles against certain politicians". It's a pretty controversial topic here as it clearly steps on our "freedom of speech". Censoring the internet is like burning books in my opinion. So do you learn things from books? Fiction and non-fiction alike? Or has some book really changed your life? I've always wondered about the power of books to alter lives, perhaps that is changing with time now as there are so many books now. Yet do we let them affect us or does the sheer population of books make us inert to the ideas they contain. I've read several books which could be called life-changing but I've never felt the effects in my own life. The only book I could say has changed my view on life is perhaps The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. Although I've read several books with bated breath, I've never felt any change in my life because of them. As a writer I find the fact that words can affect someone very overwhelming. As a reader, it scares me. Again, I wonder if I'm being pretty vague here. Not really sure if this is the place for this topic either though.

Complete TBR Pile (Queued books not included here): Auel, Jean M. — The Earth's Children series Cervantes, Miguel de — Don Quixote Donaldson, Stephen — The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan — Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Short Stories (2 Volumes) Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan — The Lost World Mohammed — The Qur'an Unknown — The Egyptian Book of the Dead King, Stephen — Carrie King, Stephen — The Stand King, Stephen — The Eyes of the Dragon Scott, Sir Walter — Ivanhoe Scott, Sir Walter — Rob Roy Sholokhov, Mikhail — Quiet Flows The Don

Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson - A Memory of Light (The 14th and final book of the wheel of time) Waited forever for this one. Can't wait to see how it ends!

Nice list so far! I've always wanted to read and watch Coraline, since Gaiman is a real genius when it comes to his story and style. I even loved American Gods and Anansi Boys and his short stories are fantastic. I'm glad you're branching out with your reading, although I can't say I'd try the same! Mills & boon?! I'd shudder lol Also nice bookshelf! Have fun filling it that's one of my favourite activities. My bookshelf is bending from the weight of my books

Indeed! I mean I didn't know until reading it that Rome had been auctioned off after the Caesar's own Praetorian guards killed him. And the post Christ story of Christianity is really illuminating too. One line of Gibbon's is something I'll never forget. "Jews were a nation but Christians were a sect." That is how he explains Christianity's oppression while Jews enjoyed a form of freedom in Roman times.

Was it translated from the original as well? I wonder if it's her writing itself or the translator who's doing a bad job. You know, that could make an interesting discussion. Do translators ruin books or are they already badly written?

Thanks Julie! I'm familiar with the story of the Count of Monte Cristo, and I've even read a part of it several times before, but I've never had the chance to finish it. I have a decent 3 hour commute to work every day now so I am putting that to good use. I haven't been too curious about Allende's work but I picked up Zorro since I'm a fan of the TV show of the 90s and the movies. Allende's writing leaves a lot to be desired, and honestly it's like she doesn't feel the same awe when she writes about Zorro as everyone who grew up reading the comics or watching the TV shows would have. I doubt she had any interest in the character until the people who own the rights came to her asking her to write the book. It's sad since there's so much potential there. Hello James and a very happy new year to you too! I'm guessing you mean RK Narayan's book. If so, then I'm not familiar with it. I think it's a very short version of it but sure, do go ahead since you always gain more while reading a larger version next if the story piques your interest. I know the story, but there's so much there that's obscured by the religious outlook people have maintained about it. Ashok Banker's version is supposedly very true to the original mythology and it does not contain any religious bias about it. In my opinion, the story is too overshadowed by the Mahabharatha and that should not be the case since it carries its own when read with a non-religious view of things. The story is one of my favourite, and I'm not too religious even though I'm a Hindu. I'm currently reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and it is a fascinating book. I was skeptical about the subject at first: why would anyone want to write about just the fall of the empire when they could have written about the rise? Now I see I'm wrong. The story of the Roman Empire is the story of its fall. Every emperor after the first Caesars was taking it towards it, in his own way. The Modern Library Classics version is apparently the only one that contains an abridged version of each and every chapter of the original text. There are no annotations and honestly, none are required for Gibbon's own narrative reads like a story of its own. I'm a quarter of the way through the 1000+ page book and it is amazing. I'm going to buy the Wordsworth edition too since it apparently contains the full text of the first few chapters. I recommend it to anyone who loves history or even a good story.

My first book was The Death and Life of Superman by Roger Stern, it's a novelization of the Death of Superman and Return of Superman comic series which ran in the early nineties. Amazing book and it should be the definitive Superman novel. I read it in about a day even bought it unexpectedly at a bookstore (it's pretty rare here).

Main Post. This lists the books I've read or am planning to definitely read/buy+read ASAP. TBR Pile Completed : 1. Roger Stern - The Life and Death of Superman 2. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Retelling by N K Sandars; Penguin Classics version with an introduction) 3. Edward Gibbon - The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (Abridged; The Modern Library edition) 4. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin) 5. Terry Pratchett - Mort 6. Conn Iggulden - Genghis : Birth of an Empire / Conqueror : Wolf of the Plains 7. Ramachandra Guha - India After Gandhi 8. Reading : 1. Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana 2. Carl Sagan - Cosmos Queued Reads : 1. Neil Gaiman - Coraline 2. Conn Iggulden - Genghis : Lords of the Bow 3. J. R. R. Tolkien - The Children of Hurin 4. Brandon Sanderson - The Way of Kings 5. H. P. Lovecraft - 67 Tales of Horror Dropped/Postponed : 1. Isabel Allende - Zorro (Reason : Allende can't write. At least her translators can't. She ruined a good chance for a magnificent story. I'm never buying another of her books again.)

You must read Eddings's Belgariad, then! The series is endearing, just as the characters themselves are. They are some of the most memorable characters in fiction that I have come across, people I can never forget. It must have been one of the earliest fantasy books I read after discovering Tolkien. He doesn't seem to copy Tolkien much, thankfully. He's fresh and I hear his wife helped him write a lot of the books, so that's a nice thing to know as well. I enjoyed The Prince of the Blood and Talon of the Silver Hawk too. I'm currently reading The King's Buccaneer and will visit The Conclave of Shadows once more later. (Alternating between trilogies is exciting!)

So has anyone finished the series? I took a peek at the Amazon reviews and was appalled by all the negative reviews for the book. I bought the first five of the books now (there was a sale so sue me ) and I am hoping there is some decent ending to the story instead of a rushed one. (12 years between books?! Really? Wow.)

I just started reading Raymond E. Feist! I didn't like his Magician novel, I'd read it several years ago but a sale prompted me to buy almost every book he has written in one shot. I've read Prince of the Blood (First book of the Krondor's Sons series) and loved it. I'm currently reading Talon of the Silver Hawk which seems to be pretty nice as well. I think I just needed to grow up a little to see how fresh his prose is. It's easy to dive into a book without knowing the thousand years' worth of backstory. I find that in common with Eddings and Feist. Even David Eddings didn't take too long to let his characters become memorable. I guess that's a writerly gift all of us have to aspire to achieve.

1984 by George Orwell. No other book has managed to scare me.

oh!!! Wow that's good to know! I really didn't know that.

Wait, I have a question!! How're they dealing with Bartimaeus's thoughts? I mean, that's the entire point of the novels IMO, so how do the audio books and graphic novels deal with it?