| Username |
Post |
| gokul |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 08:38 AM
Good Books
It seems to me that the people who visit and discuss in this site are well read, creative and intelliegent. Also, they seem to be coming from diverse academic background. I am excited to know if we can compile a list of books that we really enjoyed and would like to recommend to others. In this way, we can learn from each other. It is my firm belief that good books can change one's life forever.
Is this ok?
Bibliophile
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| namita_kiran-thuene |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 08:59 AM
Dear Gokul,
Great minds think alike or what??? i had been thinking about the same thing. :) There is a site called www.susekra.com. (yes, i have started contributing to this on-line-magazine, on request) I was going to suggest to them about the same idea to compile a list of book - something like book of the month - on a separate section. Of course we can do the same thing in this site also. That would be great for 'adan pradan' of knowledge. let's hope that this will be a true path for discovery of knowlege, not for inflated Egotistical Ride!
namita
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| Gokul |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 09:33 AM
Namita,
Thanks for your positive remarks. Encouraged by you, I am starting.
Those interested in getting cursory but intellectual introduction to Buddhism - I recommend
Buddhism - A religion of no religion by Alan Watts.
I just finished reading it. Small book. One can finish in 2/3 hours.
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| kiran |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 12:25 PM
"I am excited to know if we can compile a list of books that we really enjoyed and would like to recommend to others. In this way, we can learn from each other. It is my firm belief that good books can change one's life forever. "
If I am right Ashu had started something like this in Nepal for Kathmandu Post.May be if he could post some latest book reviews here.Just to get started would be interesting.
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 12:56 PM
Dear Gokulji:
Here are some books that I have enjoyed reading.
1- Dangerous Wives and Sacred Sisters (on Nepali bahun/chettri society) by Lynn Benett
2- The US and China by John King Fairbank
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| N. |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 01:35 PM
1. Howl by Allen Ginsberg. (poetry)
"Allen Ginsberg's 1955 poem "Howl," widely considered the most influential poem of a movement that revolutionized literature in the United States." no, not my quote.
2. The Stranger by Albert Camus (novel) one of my favourtite books of all time.
and, i will definitely check those books out suggested by gokul and trailokya. myabe not the book on china though - not yet. sounds too heavy for me, for my busy life :)
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| Trailokya |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 05:06 PM
namita ji,
Try Nisha too. Nisha by Marjorie Shastok is an excellent story of a !kung (an african tribe) woman named Nisha. Its a very acclaimed ethnographic novel.
Have fun reading.
Trailokya
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| Hom Raj |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 06:00 PM
Have been "out" in the world of research and writing, visiting libraries, taking notes, all that type of stuff you guys know! Anyway, let me contribute a list of books I recommend.
Definitely Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance." In my opinion among the current writers from South Asia, he's the number one. Jumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies," Sanjay Nigam's "The Snake Charmer," Manil Suri's "Death of Vishnu," and Ginu Kamini's "Junglee Girl" are also some good ones I've read lately. But Mistry's the best! He's also got a short story collection, "Swimming Lessons," and a novel "Such a Long Journey," which was made into an OK movie. But "A Fine Balance" is his masterpiece.
Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" is great. In fact, anything by Chinua Achebe. He's a Nigerian writer. His ability to incorporate the sayings and typical language of village people is fantastic.
In poetry I also like "Howl," and if you like that, "N.," you might like a poet I'm reading right now. Her name is Ai. I have the book "Cruelty/Killing Floor," and she has lots of others. It also pushes the limits, like "Howl" did earlier. I'm also really drawn to Pablo Neruda.
In philosophical writing Jurgen Habermas' "Towards a Rational Society" and "Legitimation Crisis" are interesting and I would really like to read "Between Facts and Norms." I'd also like to read more of Jean Baudrillard. I've just read some excerpts in the secondary source but really agree with what he says. Some people here might be wondering how this person likes both Habermas and Baudrillard at the same time since Habermas is the defender of modernity and Baudrillard trashes it, but anyway, I like to see both viewpoints.
The good thing about being a student is you are forced to swallow lots of books. But the bad thing is you don't have a real chance to digest. Hopefully some day I'll have more time to digest. But these are the really good things I've found so far among various things I've read (or been forced to read).
By the way my son (age 5) says he likes to recommend "Winnie the Pooh" (the best is the original not the Disneyfied version), "How Animals Live," "Peter Rabbit and Friends" (by Beatrix Potter), "Hanuman" (retold by Erik Jendresen), "Album of Prehistoric Man," and anything about dinosaurs!
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| sally |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 06:12 PM
"Nisa" is so great!!! I'm really glad someone else knows about that book. I'd definitely recommend it.
Also ...
* Maya Angelou's memoir, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Beautifully written and inspiring.
* Susan Lowerre's memoir of her time in the Peace Corps in W. Africa, "Under the Neem Tree." Honest and also beautifully written.
* Arundhati Roy's "God of Small Things." Terrific writing; not as straightforward a style as Sanjay Nigam or Rohinton Mistry, and therefore maybe not as accessable. But I really recommend it. (I agree that Mistry is great. Also liked "The Snake Charmer," haven't read Lahiri yet except for one short story, and wasn't as keen on "Junglee Girl.")
* Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine," the first in a series of novels about interconnected lives on a Native American reservation.
* Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" is a wonderful and empathetic portrayal of generational clash set among Chinese-Americans.
* I love Annie Proulx. She's got a collection of short stories set in Wyoming, "Close Range," that I'd highly recommend.
Most of these were best sellers and pretty easy to find.
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| sally |
Posted
on 20-Apr-01 06:14 PM
P.S. Trailokya, the cool thing about Nisa is it's actually not a novel. It's the "autobiography" of a !kung woman (bush woman) of the Kalihari, as told to an anthropologist.
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 21-Apr-01 03:56 AM
Dear Sally ji,
I am glad too that you have read Nisa. You are right, its an autobiography of Nisa, but still, it is very different than other ethnographies, for example Dangerous wives and sacred sisters and Sherpas through their rituals. That's why I see it as a novel because Shastok doesn't throw in (ir)relevant theories to connect Nisa's experience to that of other !kung women.
BTW are you an anthro major?
Trailokya
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 21-Apr-01 04:28 AM
This one's a must read:
The Rape of nanking by Iris Chang. Its about the infamous Nanking incident. It s about the atrocities committed upon innocent chinese civilians by the troops of the Japanese Imperial army during the second world war.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 21-Apr-01 07:28 AM
With so many of you reading such "khatara" books,
please do consider writing reviews for The Kathmandu
Post Review of Books.
Ramesh Parajuli is co-ordinating May 2001 ko issues of the Review, and Shizu Upadhyay is co-ordinating June 2001 ko
issues.
They need your reviews and articles. They can be reached via:
chautari@mos.com.np
Hom Raj's poem (the one previously published in Strategic
Confusion) is coming out in June, I think.
oohi
ashu
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 21-Apr-01 07:46 AM
ashu dai,
I have a question regarding TKP ko pustak samixya:
Is there a date restriction for the book(s) being reviewed? Someone once told me that they only take reviews of recent books-- books published after 1999. And you might have noticed that many the khata-ra books that we have been reading are published before that. So, is tehre a way to get around with this restriction? I would love to write a review for the US and China as it has been one of the best books I have ever read but it was first published
in 1948.
Trailokya
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| ashu |
Posted
on 22-Apr-01 02:27 AM
Hi Tarilokya,
There is really no hard and fast rule about this.
I'd advise you to go ahead, review even 'old' books with
your own ideas and evidence, and send them for publication.
oohi
ashu
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| Trailokya |
Posted
on 22-Apr-01 03:45 PM
Great!
I now have something to do in my leisure time.
Trailokya
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