Well I have recently been procrastinating and was loving it quite a bit, when a very good friend tagged me (here) into breaking my hibernation. Well as a very passive blogger that I have become(was an active one for a very brief period) I was reminded of my duties towards the clan. Though the idea first sounded like a drag but now that I have given it a thought it seems a very good idea to break out of the monotony of watching the same movies over and over again. Well the tag has put me in a bit of a quandary, I always thought that I was well read and all, but looking back it seems that counting 15 books that I have read will be a pretty hard exercise. But what the heck lets begin in a chronological order:

1.The Magic Faraway Tree - A masterpiece from Enid Blyton, the book was my introduction to the world of fantasies, and boy its been a journey from then on. I liked the book for its imagery that appealed to me as a 12 year old and can still recall pieces from the book.

2. The Treasure Island, Moby Dick - I am clubbing these two since they must have been read by all and I needn't say more on them.

3. The Man Who Knew Infinity - Robert Kanigel's biography of Srinivas Ramanujan, the book was gifted by my uncle and it got me hooked straight away. The book is a take on the genius and the tragedy that his life was. The book is especially wonderful as it relates the man with his mathematics unlike some of the works on the mathematician by Indian biographers.

4. The Bhagavad Gita - Though I dont know much of sanskrit I started with the book on my own reading an english translation with commentary by Swami Chidbhavananda. I found the explanations very lucid and being exposed ot philosophical thought presented in the book was in a way mind opening.

5. The Ashtavakra Mahagita - Ashtavakra was an ancient Indian saint known for his dialogue with King Janak. This dialogue is recorded in the book Ashtavakra Samhita. Ashtavakra Mahagita is a commentary on the book by Rajneesh "Osho". More than the philosophy presented, I liked Osho's way of interpreting things and then explaining them in simple words. I got so much into the book that I was reading it during my board examinations and my father had to scold me into abandoning it.

6. Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy - I read a Hindi translation by Jainendra Kumar Jain. Tolstoy is a master storyteller, which I discovered rather late in standard XI. The stories had a folk tale(ish) appeal in them, being both fun and didactic at the same time.

7. The Alchemist - Again a very famous book. I presume everyone knows about it. For me the book represented something that I had recently lost: The charm of life. Having spend the better part of my plus two reading academic stuff to qualify entrances which was a total drag for me, I had lost the charm and the mystery of life. I guess reading a literary work after a long time gave me my peace of mind. This was in the beginning of my first year B.Tech.

8. Siddhartha - This book by Herman Hesse seems very flimsy to look at just a 125 odd pages, but I found it to be a book of beauty and depth. I had never read western authors writing about oriental philosophy and so the book was again an eye opener as the author captures beautifully the struggle for peace of mind and the ultimate question : Whats the purpose of Life.

9. The Prisoner of Azkaban - The third book in the Harry Potter series was the first one that I read. After seeing the first two movies the book seemed to be shouting in my face to read it. What more can I say - I was reintroduced to my lost world of fantasies :).

10. The Hades Factor - This book by Robert Ludlum kick started my journey into the thrillers. The various demonic plots and the quest to save the world from the evil plans of the nexus between power hungry politicians and greedy corporates. That sounds fun doesn't it.

11. The Godfather - Boy O boy. The Italian mafia seemed like a genuine career option ;)after this.

12. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand had me hooked for the better part of the day every day for about a week(finishing the book in a jiffy did not seem to be a very exciting idea). Sitting in the class room I used to think about Howard Roark comparing myself with Peter Keating and Howard Roark. Well it was an awesome read.

13. The Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw's portrayal of the English Society and the heart warming transformation of the hackneyed flower girl Eliza Doolittle was a treat to read.

14. Its Not About the Bike - Lance Armstrong the seven time Tour de France winner after surviving testicular cancer writes in the book why it wasnt about the bike. His roller coaster ride from being the most promising cyclist in the world to almost dying of cancer to winning the toughest race in the world is an inspiring account of both courage and character.

15. A Beautiful Mind - The book by Sylvia Nasar occupied my shelf only after having seen the movie. But reading it I found that the movie was not even an honest synopsis of the book (as is the fate of most of the movies based on novels). The eccentric John Nash was someone to be worshipped, for his mathematical genius, and hated for his antics at the same time. The ending brought a certain sense of pity for the man, who was rattled by schizophrenia.

A few of the other books of note that I've read are : the whole of the Harry Potter series, The Dan Brown Thrillers (Da vinci Code, Digital Fortress and Angels and Demons), Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, The Sicillian, The Negotiator by Frederick Forsyth, The Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold, etc. There is no other reason why one of these books does not figure in my list of 15 other than the limit on the number of books.