Anything interesting/mind-blowing/scary that you are reading lately? Please share the love especially in this holiday season!

 Born to run. 

a day in the life of ivan denisovich

radha - Nepali

etc. 

GT, I am glad you are reading 'Pratek Thau, Pratek Manchhe(PTPM)' by Peter J Karthak. I have always revered that guy for his writing. In the novel  PTPM,  I was awestruck by what the author calls "Prelude" of the novel. The temporal and spatial existence of a city ,Darjeeling, has been depicted with great aplomb.

That Peter is a maverick writer is well-known in Kathmandu circles. Check his obituary on Michael Jackson to sniff the whiff of his tone, tenor and tumult in writing:

http://archives.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=6870 


And, I would also recommend CK Lal's criticism of the novel once you finish your reading. Please, follow this link :

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2005/05/27/Review/331 .

On a different note, I have always wanted to read some critical books on Marxism. One such book was 'The New Class' by Milovan Djilas. I will be pleased to be recommended of any such books.

Thank You.

 i am getting some great motivation to read different genres of works after going through  all these posts...

 I have been reading Sidney Sheldon and Agatha Christie alternatingly.
The latests being Sidney Sheldon's was Wind Mills of The Gods, and Agatha's And There Were None. 
Before that Sheldon's The Stars Shine Down, Christie's Elephants Can Remember.

 I had to read "Life of Pi" for one of my classes in College Writing. It was superb. 

What's Karnali Blues all about? 

Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes...very good book. After going through some of his other books, i realize that he is really amazin writer - simple- short -sweet. But plz dont take what he says too seriously, some time i feel that he is just trying to create his own religion.

Also reading some Anton Chekhov's short stories. Was BP Koirala's Doshi Chasma was inspired by Chekhov's "Death of clerk?"

Fractal bro,

Thanks a lot for sharing your view and valuable information on PTPM. I will definitely follow those links once I am done with the book. 

And also please don't forget to share your notes on Camus'  The plague whether I can get some taste of what people called existentialism.

I am reading Rabi Thapa's book of short stories called "Nothing to Declare." I'm enjoying it so far.

 Since many of you are going to start Karnali Blues here is what Peter J Karthak has to say about it

http://archives.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=23872

Am reading Indira Gandhi's biography.

"Life of Pi" is an excellent book. Recently i finished "Unaccustomed Earth" by JHumpa Lahiri, which explores the psychology of Migrants population living in USA. But if you really want scary as well as serious book and you have good backgtround of Science read "Selfish Genes" by Richard Dawkins. It will compel us to think about our existence and "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan is also a great BOOK for non-fiction reader.

@GT: Whenever people talk about existentialism, I just quote the first line of Camus' novel 'The Stranger',"Mother died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know".  This observation of the hero, Meursault , of the novel  weaves the entire scaffolding of existentialism for me. I will put the philosophy in simplest possible words : senselessness and purposelessness of life in an absurd world. Camus'  must have had his share of mammoth  tragedies  in his life and time  to gift humanity with such a harrowing philosophy. I read 'The Stranger' right after my high school. The book would haunt me for a long time to come and had a deep imprint in my thinking mode until more practical experiences of life had better lessons/philosophy to teach me.

    So, if one is looking for an authentic work on existentialism, 'The Stranger' is a better pick than 'The Plague'. In 'The Plague', Camus transcends the chilling aloofness of existentialsm and embraces love  which makes it all the more beautiful.  I promise that would be your life-time reading . Please, go for that and share your experiences here.You might just meet the best fictional hero in ' The Plague' - Dr. Rieux. A character which you would never forget. 

Just finished Steve jobs biography and waitin on someone famous to die.

Thank you all for your wonderful inputs.

- I was blown away by the redundancy of names in "100 years of solitude"." I just couldn't keep up w/ names and people. Otherwise, a classic read.

- Had eyes on "Eleven Minutes" but somehow the first impression from his very famous "The Alchemist" wasn't great.

On the non-fiction side, "Outliers" and "Predictably Irrational" are great books. Go beyond norm, put in ten thousand hours of hardwork and become an outlier - that's when you become successful.

Currently, dwelling on "The inheritance of loss" by Kiran Desai.

 I was halfway on the inheritance of loss and somewhere along the way I remember Kiran Desai portraying Nepalese in somewhat of a inferior way. Then I moved to a different city and the book got lost or something I dont know how the story ended, Anyways Grace please let us know how the book is

The books that I have eyes on are

Three cups of tea
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alaine de botton. 

On the non fiction side

Complications: A surgeons notes on an imperfect science.

How about starting a Sajha readers club???

 HIGH TIMES

I was just about to start a similar thread but am glad to have found this! I've been shopping around for some good books to read this holiday season. Any other suggestions aside from the above? Something light and intellectually funny?





Also, @ the post about starting a sajha book club, sounds like a great idea to me!

 Listening to 'Phool ko ankhama' by Ani Choying Dolma (autobiography).