Thursday, June 19, 2008

Bookslaps

As a second exercise in the Creative Writing course, we had to come up with the names of our top 10 books (thank god it wasn't coming up with good titles). I’ve tried to compile a list of the books that have made some sort of a lasting impression on me, but the problem is I cannot recall the names of so many books that I have read. It might have been easier if we were to make a list of top 10 books in each genre. There are loads of others books that I have immensely enjoyed but they’re not the top 10. My list is displayed in the panel on the right hand side. To this list, I must add two plays – Betrayal and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, and three short stories – Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, The Dead by James Joyce and The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol.

These pieces of literature would constitute the best I’ve read, or at least the ones that I’ll remember for a long time, with the disclaimer that some of the works might have been left out simply because I couldn’t recall them.

Mat gave his own list of top 10 books. These were:

  • The Hobbit – J R R Tolkien
  • Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson
  • The House at Pooh Corner – A A Milne
  • Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Cider House Rules – John Irving
  • Flashman – George Macdonald Fraser
  • The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
  • Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
  • The Sandman – Neil Gaiman
  • The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling

What are your top 5 books? Looking forward to interesting and unusual titles. See, this is how I make my reading lists. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Top 5 (not in any particular order)

1. Phantoms in the brain
2. Dictionary of the Occult
3. Why men die when women try
4. A certain ambiguity
5. Autobiography of a Yogi

Okay, I own up! Number 3 does not exist. :P But you obviously know that.

Swetank: "Betcha fat maggot"

Tra la la

Unknown said...

Top five right now:
1. White Teeth: Zadie Smith
2. The Namesake: Jhumpa Lahiri
3. Eavesdropping: Steven Kuusisto
4. Portrait of my body: Philip Lopate
5. Inheritance of Loss: Kiran Desai

Swetank Gupta said...

Onion
The interesting thing is that I haven't even heard of any one of these. Should diversify my reading habits. Hmm...

Sayandi
Need to read these. Zadie Smith, especially. Have heard so much about her. I've got such contrasting reviews on 'Inheritance of Loss'. You are, in fact, the first person who reads 'serious' 'literature' who has recommended it. It has been trashed by every person I know (except for maybe Amiya - she was still in the early stages of the book when we talked about it. Don't know how she ended up liking it.)