book tag
got tagged by Aparna.. this is one i don't mind playing along with.. i love(d) books! the reasons for the past tense shall soon be made clear!
Last book I bought:
I just bought two books: 'Cobain' (Rolling Stone), which is actually an anthology of all the articles the mag published about Kurt and Nirvana. Was flipping through it at the local Barnes & Noble, very interesting reading. And I also picked up 'Journals' (Kurt Cobain), which are his diaries from the phase before Nirvana took off, it's quite uncanny how Kurt just knew he'd be huge one day!
Last book I read:
Finished 'State Of Fear' (Michael Crichton) recently, which provoked a post, and a couple of solid arguments with friends about the whole issue of global warming, and how we're looking at it, or rather, how we're being made to look at it!
Book(s) currently reading:
Have finally started 'So What!' (Steffan Chirazi), a biography of Metallica, which the brownie gang here gifted me on my birthday (yes i know it was six months ago!!). No holds barred, no holding back, just like the band personify in their music!
Total number of books I own:
This is kinda incalculable, since i have held on to almost every book i have bought, going back to my childhood! I have three cartons of books safely stowed away in storage back in nairobi, two boxfuls in my grandfather's house in calcutta, and another hefty bunch here too!
Books that mean(t) a lot to me:
Whoa! Another impossible kinda question! I think at different phases of my life, I have been influenced by different books. I've always been an insanely insatiable reader, and when i had access to the books (my own collection, my best friend Amrit's collection, school libraries.. i have been known to read three-four books in a sitting). However, I have always preferred to read informal literature, over the classics, and over 'serious' books!
Even now, i just don't seem to find the time (or patience!) to read books, preferring instead to limit my reading to stuff that isn't over 100-150 pages long, printed on glossy paper, and has a sizeable number of scantily-clad women draped all over it! hehe!
In my schoolyears: Peter & Jane (Ladybird series), the Famous Five (and other Enid Blyton's works), the William series (Richmal Crompton), The Three Investigators (Robert Arthur), the Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon), Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene), their Case Files, Agatha Christie, Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Alistair Maclean, Jeffrey Archer, Eric van Lustbader and i'm pretty sure i'm forgetting lots more too..
Later on i moved to Robert Ludlum, Michael Crichton, Robin Cook and P.G Wodehouse among mainstream writers, and Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, David Maillu, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Arundhati Roy, Gita Mehta, Andy McNab and a whole bunch of others who i don't even remember anymore!
I have to mention here that if i had to pinpoint any one book that really made a difference to my life, then it would have to be the legendary 'How To Win Friends And Influence People' by Dale Carnegie!! I know it sounds really corny, but my grandpa gave me this when i was a shy, reserved kid in class 5, and it made a whole new man out of me!! basically it woke the devil inside me, but hey, my grandpa passed away happy that he had left the next generation of Mittra's in safe hands.. muhahahah! ;-)
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