The 15 Books Tag

I have been tagged by Shankar for the 15 books tag. This is my first tag. Yippee :-). And it couldn't have come at a better time. Coz I have been too pre-occupied with other stuff, to write a post. So here's some fodder for my blog...

The rules are: "Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag up to 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose."

So here goes my list of 15 books...in a random order coz I cannot rank them down.

1. Folk Tales From Soviet Union Series (Author Various)

Apart from reading Indian folk tales and the Western fairy tales, I also loved reading the folk tales in this series. It transported me to a land of tsars, tsarinas, dragons, fair maids, giant talking crows, fire-birds. It was absolutely fun reading the stories as a kid.

2. Great Expectations (Author Charles Dickens)
Charles Dickens stories are a pleasure to read, albeit a bit sad. And this one was no exception.

3. Wuthering Heights (Author Emily Bronte)
One story that I wished I hadn't read the abridged version as a kid. So that's why I have managed to get my hands on an unabridged version and reading it again.

4. We The Living (Author Ayn Rand)
A book that I have listed almost everywhere amongst my favorites. I have always liked stories with strong female characters. And the hero of this story was also a female. One who was not afraid to follow her dreams. One who believed strongly in her love, to the extent of sacrificing everything for it. And in the end, left alone, and yet not giving up and moving ahead.

5. Doctors (Author Erich Segal)
Easy, breazy and light. The ending was a bit lame though.

6. Harry Potter Series (Author J.K. Rowling)
I am not ashamed to say that I have read the entire series, own all of the books, and still read them once in every few months. And thoroughly enjoyed all the make-believe stuff in them.

7. Kane And Abel (Author Jeffrey Archer)
Two men, alike in so many ways and yet so different. Hell-bent on destroying one another. A gripping story.Liked the sequel The Prodigal Daughter also.

8. How I Taught My Grandmother To Read And Other Stories (Author Sudha Murthy)
Simple and lovely short stories.

9. Oh Shit, Not Again (Author Mandar Kokate)
This book stays in my head, not because it's a fab one, but coz it's the worst one I ever read. I haven't seen any B-grade movie. And the closest that I have come to a B-grade book is at the book stalls near the Baroda railway station. But am sure, this book falls into the B-grade category.

10. Selected Works of O Henry
The original one who wrote such wonderful stories with a twist at the end. Probably, that's why one I read a story by another blogger or when I read the stories that I have written, the twist seems so tame and expected.

11. Sherlock Holmes (Author Arthur Conan Doyle)
Elementary My Dear Watson...If it was so elementary, wonder why Watson and others were never able to find all the clues. Watching the T.V. series was not as much fun and reading the stories, wondering how Holmes would solve the mystery.

12. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Author Khaled Hosseini)
A sad, sad state of affairs. After turning every page, I wished the suffering of the women would stop. But even though this is fiction, it is inspired by the truth. So, the suffering continues for a long time...

13. The Road (Author Cormac McCarthy)
Grey...that's the image that comes to my mind, when I recall this book. Grey and sad and scary, that's what the world is portrayed to be in this book, which is set in the future.

14. The Secret (Author Rhonda Byrne)
One book which has been lying in my closet for quite some time now, and which would be helpful to me in a lot of ways. Still not ready to read it yet.

15. Angels And Demons (Author Dan Brown)
Same setting as in the Da Vinci Code, a different city, a different enemy, a disappointing ending.

Well well, judging by the list above, I can safely conclude that I don't have a very great taste for literature. But that's ok. If I were reading to impress others, then I know that I wouldn't have been able to finish even a single book in my life.

I tag you all:Shankar, KParthasarathi, Arslan, Pawan ,195 Degrees

I wanna tag you Koyeli, but you seem to have vanished from the blogosphere. I haven't been able to access your profile for a while. And you too JD,but you seem to have given up on your blog.

And Finally He Popped The Question...

Who did: Archie
To Whom: Veronica (At least that's what this cover Archie_Weds_Veronica? seems to indicate)

If you don't know who I am talking about, then obviously you have not read any of the Archie comics. I started reading Archie comics after I outgrew Tinkle, Chacha Chaudhary, Chandamama. I have rummaged through numerous raddiwala stalls in search of second-hand comics coz they were really expensive compared to the Indian ones; borrowed the comics from my younger cousin who's also bitten by the reading bug; and even sat in Crossword for hours reading the comics.

The buzz doing the rounds is that Archie is finally going to choose between Betty and Veronica. And rumors are that he is going to choose Veronica over Betty. Not surprisingly a lot of the readers are aghast over Archie's decision to choose the spoilt rich female instead of the goody-goody one. Geez, it's just a comic. Why trash our favourite comic book characters calling Archie a jerk, Veronica a snotty brat and Betty a doormat!

Which brings me to the question I had in my mind: Do nice girls finish last? I always thought that the opposite was true. I mean when it comes to dating, guys seem to like the wild chick, the wilder the better. But when it comes to settling down, it's mummy's choice. And in most cases, it's dead certain that mummy is not going to pick the girl who speaks her mind, who doesn't fit into the mould of the beautiful, obedient, docile wife/daughter-in-law. It's true of even females; we may fall for the tousle-haired, dreamy-eyed, guitar-wielding, poetry-spewing guy in our teens. But when we realize that he's not husband-material, we drop him in favor of the suited-booted guy with a steady 9-6 job. Is there any truth to the keep-your-guy-at-the-edge advice that mags like Cosmo seem to offer?Well, it certainly worked in Veronica's case, didn't it!

P.S. I think the cover is just a trick. The Archie-Betty-Veronica saga will probably end up in a filmy manner with Archie realizing his love for Betty at the last minute.

Turn Off The Lights...

Nope, this is not my favourite bedroom line! Come to think of it, I don't have a favourite bedroom line yet. If you share a room with just a bunny soft toy, you really cannot think of any bedroom lines. (Also, it doesn't help that the bunny is locked up somewhere in a cupboard because I am not really fond of soft toys!)

"Turn Off The Lights" is a game I learned to play when I was living with roomies in Pune, and invariably one or all the lights/geyser/fan switches were left switched on, even if no one was there in the room. I can't honestly say that I was worried about global warming or energy conservation when I used to go around switching off stuff; I was more worried about the electricity bill at the end of the month :-).

As another scorching summer ends, and with reports of Mumbai to witness record high tide in a 100 years this year, it makes me wonder how much of it is related to global warming? There must be hundreds and thousands of articles on global warming on the internet, and most of them very scientific and serious stuff. I liked the simple tips given on this site FightGlobalWarming and was glad to know that I followed at least a few of the tips. And if nothing else, there's always my Turn Off The Lights game.

P.S. I like to watch horror movies and get a little scared. But those horror movies are nothing compared to the ones depicting horrific situations resulting due to climate change; because there is a very fair probability that the latter may come true.

Here's the link to a few of them:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.whowillsurvive2012.com/

The Day After Tomorrow