Take a pick by Reema Lodha

I used to be a member of this library and at one time I could pick 11 books (that was because I used someone else’s card too). So, how does one pick 11 books…?

Initially, I stuck to paperbacks and very thin ones, so that it was easy for me to carry them home. Later, I realized I finished these thin ones quickly and I needed more. So had to figure out a different strategy.

I switched to picking books from one shelf…but then the problem was that these books were mostly from same author and it became monotonous reading….I needed something different….variety.

Finally I ended up picking every 6^th book on the shelf. And unbelievably, I got introduced to Dirk Bogarde. I got to read Queen of crime thrillers, Agatha Christie’s memoir -about her experience during archaeological digs, and many more such gems…

My method of picking books may sound weird. But how do you pick your book?

A note from INDIAreads….

Thank you Reema for the amazing post and a great idea. This will be our INDIAreads Quick Contest 4: Share with us your quirkiest method of choosing/ reading books and win prizes.

This time the prizes will be based on a lucky draw because how do  you rate innovation and personal  habits? 3 winners will be selected.

Last date: June 11, 2011. Lucky draw results on June 13, 2011.

And Reema, in recognition  fo your idea, you get a free gift hamper from INDIAreads

The same goes for all our members and book lovers. Share your book experiences, suggest an idea for a contest or just tell us a story that you feel  fellow book lovers would like to read and get a gift hamper from INDIAreads…after all, books are all about sharing

Courtesy: www.stephenking.com

Born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine Stephen Edwin King is the award winning  author of over 49 novels, 5 non-fiction books and nine short story collections. His father, a merchant seaman from Peru left the family when King was just 2 years old. King started writing  in January,1959 when his elder brother David and he decided to publish their own local town newspaper named Dave’s Rag on a mimeograph machine. They created a paper that sold for five cents an issue. During his sophomore year at University of Maine at Orono, King wrote a weekly column for the college newspaper. In his fist year, he also completed a novel called The Long Walk, but it was rejected by Random House. In 1967 The Glass Floor became the  first of King’s stories to be sold and professionally published.

In college, King was active in student politics and supported the anti-war movement during the Vietnam crisis.  After graduation, King though qualified to be a high school teacher was forced to take up employment as a labourer in an industrial laundry. He continued to write and sell short stories to men’s magazine. Finally in 1971, King found employment as a teacher and began writing in the evenings and on weekends. In 1974, Carrie was published and King made enough money to give up teaching and take up writing as a full time career. Over the years, many of King’s novels were made into films and he won accolades including Bram Stoker Awards, Locus Awards, and, in 2003, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. During the 1970s and 1980s, King also published 7 short novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

Rent, Buy the following popular Stephen King novels and many others from INDIAreads Online Book Rental Library cum Bookstore.

Shawshank Redemption

Duma Key

The Stand

Pet Sematary

Cell

Nelson DeMille

Courtesy: www.nelsondemille.net

Born on August 23, 1943 in New York, Nelson Richard DeMille served in the United States Army and fought during the Vietnam War. He is a member of Mensa and also writes under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, and Brad Matthews. Some of his popular works include:

The Lion’s Game

The Charm School

The General’s Daughter

The Talbot Odyssey

Rent these best selling novels by Nelson DeMille for just Rs 150 per month from INDIAreads Online Library cum Bookstore. Register Now!

Edgar Lee Masters

(August 23, 1868 -March 5, 1950)

An American poet, dramatist and biographer, Edgar Lee Masters is best known for his Spoon River Anthology. In his lifetime he produced twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies. A lawyer by profession, Masters often fought for the poor. In the 1880s he published his first writing in the Chicago Daily News. He was married twice and also wrote under the pseudonym Dexter Wallace and Webster Ford.

On July 11, this week, two award winning authors of Indian origin celebrated their birthday. Join us as we try and learn a little more about these writers who have done INDIA proud and who have kept us engaged with their thoughts, observations, creativity and writing skills.

AMITAV GHOSH

Born in Kolkatta on July 11, 1956, Ghosh studied at the Doon School and St Stephens College New Delhi before getting a D.Phil in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. Ghosh’s first job was with the Indian Express in New Delhi. In 1986 he published his first novel, the Circle of Reason and won the Prix Medici Estranger, one of France’s top literary awards. In 1999, Ghosh joined the faculty at Queens College, City University of New York as Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature.  Since 2005, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard University.

Ghosh is married to writer Deborah Baker and has two children, Lila and Nayan. He commutes between Kolkatta, Goa (where he has bought a house) and Brooklyn.

Often categorised as historical fiction, Ghosh’s works show an intense understanding of human nature.  His characters are living, breathing people whom his readers, meet, understand and befriend. His prose, original. His themes, unique and cross-cultural. In his own words, “My work is about people who find themselves in many different kinds of predicament, historical and contemporary…my most important characters are never those who see things in black and white; nor do they resort to easy judgements. In my view all important ethical and political judgements are difficult; what is more they are always specific to the situation at hand.”

Ghosh’s  novels bring alive different times and places and provide readers with rich cultural and sociological experiences. Where does reality end and fiction begin? The blending is so perfect, so seamless that it is almost impossible to tell. This perhaps explains the string of awards won by him. The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award, India’s most prestigious literary award.The Calcutta Chromosome won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997. The Glass Palace won the Grand Prize for Fiction at the Frankfurt International e-Book Awards in 2001.  The Hungry Tide won the Hutch Crossword Book Prize in 2006. In 2007 Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Grinzane Cavour Prize in Turin, Italy. Sea of Poppies was shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize. In 2007, Ghosh was awarded the Padma Shri.   Earlier this year Ghosh along with Margaret Atwood was awarded the Dan David prize, which found him in the midst of a huge controversy.

JHUMPA LAHIRI

Born in London on July 11, 1967, Jhumpa had been writing stories in her notebooks since her school days. However, it was only when she took up a research assistantship with a non-profit organisation in Cambridge, that her life as a writer began. In her own words, “For the first time I had a computer of my own at my desk, and I started writing fiction again, more seriously. I used to stay late and come in to work on stories. Eventually I had enough material to apply to the creative writing program at Boston University. But once that ended, unsure of what to do next, I went on to graduate school and got my Ph.D. In the process, it became clear to me that I was not meant to be a scholar. It was something I did out of a sense of duty and practicality, but it was never something I loved. I still wrote stories on the side, publishing things here and there. The year I finished my dissertation, I was also accepted to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and that changed everything. It was something of a miracle. In seven months I got an agent, sold a book, and had a story published in The New Yorker. I’ve been extremely lucky. It’s been the happiest possible ending.”

In 2000, her debut short stories collection, The Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize., the PEN/Hemingway Award and The New Yorker Debut of the Year. She wrote her debut novel, the Namesake in 2003 and it was adapted into a popular movie, directed by Mira Nair. Her second collection of short stories, The Unaccustomed Earth, was released in 2008 and debuted as number 1 on the New York Best sellers list.

The daughter of Bengali Indian immigrants, Jhumpa was born as Nilanjana Sudeshna but became known by her pet name as it was easier to pronounce.. Her family moved to the US when she was just three and Lahiri considers herself to be an American. She obtained a number of degrees from Boston University including a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She is currently a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by US President Barack Obama. Jhumpa is married to journalist Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Jhumpa’s stories are often autobiographical and dwell upon the dilemmas, trials and anxieties of her parents, friends, neighbours and other immigrants.  Written in simple English, her stories are popular for their sensitivity and their exploration of immigrant psychology and behaviour.

A French aviator and writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupery is best known for his best selling master piece: The Little Prince. On his 110th Birth anniversary, we bring together some of his Little passages filled with Great meaning!!!

“All grown ups were children once,
Although few of them remember it.”

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.”

“If I were to command a general to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general’s fault. It would be mine.”

“What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.”

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

“A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.”

A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He does not say “My men were beaten,” he says, “I was beaten.”

“I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.”