vinay87

I haven't heard about that one, is there a good English translation about?

aw you reminded me of this series I wanted to forget! GRR Martin's brilliant but he gets negative brownie points for not finishing the series. hmm I wonder if I can watch these though

I'm studying in Bangalore too! Well, I'm sure that your friend is only travelling because of the traffic. I face that too. I have to change the bus once before I get to the Institute. Takes about 1 hour without traffic. Luckily, the buses are usually half-empty so I don't face much discomfort there. When I was doing my Undergrad, I had to travel for 1h 45min so this is a piece of cake

I haven't read much since my last visit to this forum. I have some manner of excuse since I began my journey onto the road of a PhD in Aerospace Engineering this month. Yet, it's no excuse for not having read anything or written anything. I did read Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. Strangely not what I expected. I will review it later. I'm reading Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea now.

Compared to the other people on this forum, my 250 books collection doesn't seem much but I do have one piece of advice. Never ever buy a bookshelf with sliding doors on it. They're demonic. I have one "open" bookshelf (the sliding glass panes fell out one day and nearly hit me on the head) and three "closed" bookshelves which hold my technical books. I'll definitely get rid of the first bookshelf and get a custom made one soon. Hopefully within this year.

Yeah, thought so too. I like used books for the history that they bring along with em

I found a lovely hologram-bookmark with a wolf on it, a photo of a kid pasted on a "don't do drugs" book mark, a photo from what I assume to be a wildlife reserve with some stone carving of a stag on it and in one book, two people had exchanged notes that went something like "I love you" "IF you liked me you wouldn't treat me this way" "But I care" "Then why did you hurt me?" "I want to be with you." "Learn how to treat a lady first." All written in pencil and in different handwriting so it leads me to think that some couple were exchanging notes in this unique fashion. I'd have damned them to hell for writing in a book though. hmm I've also found many names inside books, of the previous owners, or notes when the book were gifted (sad that they give them away after someone took pains to write "merry christmas dear XXX" in a book. I could write a story about all of this. :')

har har har James Got some education related stuff piled up at home, after a week of agonising discourses with my parents I have them convinced that I want to do a PhD in aerospace engineering. Going to meet a professor tomorrow to discuss my options so didn't get much writing/reading done. My book is going really well though. Read a little of TOAFK again. Planning on starting Frankenstein.

Read about 40 pages of The Sword in the Stone by TH White on my morning walk. I'm also reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum and listening to Mort by Terry Pratchett

Finished reading Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites. The man is hilarious!!!!!! Still reading War and Peace. I will not give up. (Actually I only paused because the book's too big to carry around while walking) I also started reading T H White - The Once And Future King.

Not really. As you can expect, some of her recurring detectives do talk about their previous cases but never give anything away as such. Her most famous detective is Hercule Poirot who debuts in A Mysterious Affair at Styles, along with his "sidekick" Captain Arthur Hastings. Seeing as you have a lot of unread books already, I guess you should start with Taken at the Flood.

Reading War and Peace. Page 50!

And some translations just suck. I feel like learning French just to read the original.

Ah, if you haven't read anything by Agatha Christie then those aren't the books I'd recommend. You should try The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or The Mysterious Affair At Styles. Roger Ackroyd is mind-blowing. There's also Five Little Pigs which I enjoyed. One of my friends hated Trudi Canavan, another loved her, so I haven't given her books a go. I have to admit, her books became available at the wrong time in my case. I had just declared that I quit reading Fantasy. The Little Prince is... different. I've laughed at many points in the book, mainly because how much I needed to read something like that. I was in a bad state when my friend recommended it to me and it livened up my mood. I've been unable to digest Dickens's writing. I hope to read at least one of his books. Maybe Bleak House!

1. Jules Verne - The Mysterious Island My favourite read of 2010. It is signature Jules Verne and beyond that, and the various occasions on which I've extolled his works, I have nothing more to repeat. 2. Victor Hugo - Les Misérables Les Mis. That's enough said. 3. Lew Wallace - Ben Hur The movie with Charlton Heston was 45% as good as the book itself. The book is magical. 4. George Orwell - 1984 This is the scariest thing I have ever read. No it doesn't have zombies. Sometimes, ideas are scarier than monsters. 5. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince One of the most memorable books I have ever read. I will return to it every year just to remind myself the importance of dreaming.

Pretty interesting books there! Looking forward to what you feel about Trudi Canavan! I've gotten only mixed reviews about her books. Taken at the Flood is a personal favourite as well as one of my earliest Dame Christie books. Hope you enjoy it. I really enjoyed The Little Prince. It's an awesome book with deeply rooted meaning that I am sure you will love as well. Good luck with the rest! I'm going to tackle Don Quixote and the Dickens's books myself this year. I haven't heard of The Last Cavalier! Sigh another Dumas book that I will not find in print in India! I'll have to get the Gutenburg texts printed! And 1985?! Wow I loved 1984 so if this person's sequel lives up to anything that's close to 1984.. I want to see it!

So far so good. I'm 30 pages in, which isn't bad since the print is miniscule. The wordsworth classics edition seems easily readable. I'm also listening to A History of Warfare by John Keegan.

Happy new year!!! Hope you have some wonderful reads this year James!

Haha! I thought to make it the last book of 2011 but then realised that if I want to prove a point to myself, I should read it first.

I absolutely love that book! It's wonderfully refreshing to say the least. I hope you enjoy it! I started reading Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace. Call it my way of starting the year with a self-challenge. I haven't read any of his original work, but I do love his work on the Wheel of Time books. I hope to read his other books soon, especially since I've started listening to his podcast Writing Excuses. Happy reading!

This year I'm hoping to read more classics. I've read 22 books last year, which isn't saying much since I bought nearly 100 or so. I also hope to be able to read eBooks, since I'll save more money that way. So here's the list: Edit (05 June 2011) : Ditched the classics, restarting reading list for the year. Various reasons. Graphic Novels I've been buying graphic novels now. Call them comics if you will, the name's irrelevant. Here's the list of those. 1. Waid, Yu, Alanguilan — Superman : Birthright 10/10 2. Green, Johnson, Davis, Banning — Superman/Batman : The Search For Kryptonite Story : 8/10 Art : 10/10 3. Moore, Gibbons — Watchmen Art : 9/10 Story : 7/10 Contemporary Fiction 1. Trudi Canavan — The Magicians' Guild 6/10 2. Neil Gaiman - American Gods 7/10 3. Terry Pratchett — Mort 10/10 4. Douglas Adams — The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy Unfinished 5. Neil Gaiman — Anansi Boys 10/10 6. Arthur C. Clarke — Earthlight 8/10 7. Umberto Eco — Name of the Rose Unfinished 8. Stephen King — The Gunslinger Abandoned 9. Raymond E. Feist — Prince of the Blood 7.5/10 10. Raymond E. Feist — The King's Bucacaneer 8/10 11. Raymond E. Feist — Talon of the Silver Hawk 8/10 12. Raymond E. Feist — King of Foxes 7/10 13. Raymond E. Feist — Exile's Return 10/10 14. Raymond E. Feist — Flight of the Nighthawks 10/10 15. Raymond E. Feist — Magician : Apprentice 9/10 16. Raymond E. Feist — Magician : Master 10/10 17. Classic Fiction 1. Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera 9/10 2. Jules Verne — Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea Unfinished 3. Misc. 1. Siva — The Sivapurana Retold — Ramesh Menon 9/10 2. Bought a lot of other books too, but those are for reading later. This year, I just want to enjoy reading and not read because I have to or anything like that. I'd say I'm doing well so far (in comparison with last year, I mean). Classics : Fiction Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace Contemporary Fiction Robert Ludlum - The Bourne Identity (E-book) Fantasy Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites Terry Pratchett - Mort (Audiobook) Non-Fiction John Keegan - The History of Warfare Sun Tzu - The Art of War I'm starting my reading year with the juggernaut itself. I wish/hope/pray to be able to finish this mammoth somehow or the other. I've always believed that if I can finish this, I can do anything in life. So I'm going to put that to the test.