Who's reading what,when & the experience

Nick-H

I'm still on Thursday Next. I guess I liked the look of the series in the bookshop, and bought a handful. One and a half to go, in stock, but I still don't think I'll buy more.

Muriel Spark's The Ballad of Peckham Rye and Tibor Fischer's The Thought Gang queued up for re-reading as soon as I get the chance to get back to real literature.

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kidsan

Yes, i just read this after seeing a review in the observer and thought it brilliant...very moving and very honest.

Casey

I am currently reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. I am only one chapter in so I can't comment on the book. I think If You Don't Know Me By Now will be added to my "to read" shelf.

roopeeman

I am reading the Gita!

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rmur

Let's see.. I've got quite a few on the go, but:
The Ancestors Tale - Richard Dawkins
House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Blindness - Jose Saramago

Aishah

Kidsan - I've noted your last title as a book to look out for - sounds excellent.
My current read has me rivetted! It's Justin Cartwright's Interior. I think this author has been mentioned previously on this thread - wonderful writing, insightful and moves along at a gripping pace. Set in Africa, and it's much more than it's basic plot - a search by a son for his long missing/dead father in 'the interior' of Banguniland.

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theyyamdancer

I have just finished reading "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers" by Xiaolu Guo, which I really enjoyed. It is the story of a Chinese girl who comes to London to learn English. At first she writes in broken 'Chinglish'; as the story progresses and her love affair with an English artist in the East End develops, her command of the language improves dramatically. The artifice of the language may annoy some people, but it gives the author a chance to play with words in order to express her feelings of alienation. A good read and very unusual.

capt_mahajan

I seem to be stuck on Manto. Interrupted the urdu one (I am so rusty that I can't even claim I can read urdu now, to be honest) and bought 'Mottled Dawn' yesterday. 50 short stories and scripts on Partition from the Master.

Excellent translation, I guess, but not the same thing. Whatever, highly recommended. Probably the best short story writer (also screenwriter in pre independence India, commentator, lush and broke writer after Partition, pining for Bombay, walking into newspaper offices in Pakistan and writing coloumns in an hour for the price of cheap hooch...he always started and continued fluently till he finished, no editing... fascinating guy and a genius to boot) on Partition that I have read.

The title, "Mottled dawn' is from a poem by Faiz (and don't start me on him now )

Except that it was written on the eve of Partition in August 1947, when both these guys, amongst millions of others, were aghast at the horror

Faiz:

Yeh Daagh daagh ujala , yeh shab gazeeda sahar
Woh intizar thaa jiss ka ye woh sahar to nahiN

This mottled dawn,
This night-bitten morning.
No, this is not the morning
We had set out in search of."


(first google)

http://www.dukandar.com/mottleddawn.html

13.95 USD

I bought mine for 250 rupees, Penguin India.

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brishti

yeh darust aeb hai maikashi
yeh baja ke bada haram hai
par sawal ab hai yeh Aa paRa
ke tumharay haath main jaam hai

For sure drinking is an evil
No doubt, liquor is prohibited
this all is put to question, when
you are the one, offering a drink


and my all time favourite

raat yun dil main teri khoyee hoi yaad aai
jaisay veeranay main chupkay say bahar aa jäyay
jaisay sahrao.N main holay say chalay baad-e-naseem
jaisay beemar ko bay-wajah qarar aa jäyay

Last night your faded memory came to me
As in the wilderness spring comes quietly,
As, slowly, in the desert, moves the breeze,
As, to a sick man, without cause, comes peace.
[ translated by vikram seth ]



:brishti

capt_mahajan

Vikram Seth

Yep, faiz is something, but mir is better

brishti

there were 3 translations of 'Last Night' - agha shahid ali, sarvat rahman and vikram seth.
seth's was the one that appealed to me most.
unfortunately the link nada working

faiz does it for me cap'n -
you can have your space station!


:brishti

Darmabum

about sound in general, with an emphasis on music . . . "The World is Sound: Nada Brahma, Music and the Landscape of Consciousness". Author's name escapes me . . . great book for anyone who loves Indian music especially as jazz relates to it. Very well written and researched; the author (whose name still escapes me) was a very influential German music producer. Not for everyone, but if you're one of the one's it's for, it's a gem.

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brishti

here you go darmabum


am i gettin google savvy or am i gettin google savvy!!!
:brishti

iwanttogoback

'the complete novels of jane austen', all 1300+ pages.

again.

nick understands, i think.

Aishah

Dipping into time and again, "A Shrine to Lata Mangeshkar" by Australian critic, poet and writer, Kerry Leves. Recently published by Puncher & Wattman, this book of poems was inspired by Leves's living and travelling throughout India over a period of several years. The poems are wonderfully sensual, and at the same time, revealing of the poet's own awakening. I particularly enjoyed his Pushkar and Simla poems.
btw Lata Mangeshkar (now 78)is Asha Bhosle's sister and 'rival' in singing - at the time of Leves's travels most of the music played all over India was her songs.