Second Lot

I am posting reviews of 5 more books. But before these, 'Books and I', my attempt to grapple with my obsession with books.

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is one of the great novels of twentieth century. I will implore every reader of these lines to read this book if they still haven't. The 'Greatest', the 'Best', lists are not the sources I scourge when I am thirsting for new books. It is not on one occasion that I have squirmed with distaste as I plodded through a widely acclaimed novel that featured in innumerable 'must read before you die' lists. I have often come across a book that warmed the cockles of my heart immeasurably but could not muster even lukewarm response from the high-brow critics. But I can say it honestly that Of Human Bondage deserves to be in every such list and it is. I consider myself the greatest fan of Somerset Maugham 'East of Suez', quite unabashedly. The kind reader who continues to find in this blog something to engage her attention, albeit momentarily, will see more of Maugham in my future posts.

A Brief History of Time is one of the most popular science books for the laymen. It instantly achieved an iconic status for itself and a pop-star fame for Stephen Hawking on its publication 30 years back. It explains our Universe with magnificent lucidity and brevity.

The other confounding riddle of existence is life. Richard Dawkins explains some of its conundrums with engaging perspicacity and prose in his book The Blind Watchmaker.

Ruskin Bond's autobiography, The Lone Fox Dancing, which was published a few years back, has the same beguiling simplicity as his other books.

I talked about Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, in my previous post. Michael Lewis' The Undoing Project tells the tale of Kahneman and Tversky friendship and collaboration which laid bare the shocking decision-making apparatus of human mind.

Comments

  1. VaibhavNovember 4, 2019 at 8:20 AM

    Agreed with list sir,was hoping to see Marquez here too.
    Although, i think very allround and balanced sort of list .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lifeinbooksNovember 4, 2019 at 9:35 AM

      Thanks. But this is not the complete list. Most of these impressions were recorded years back ( how and why i wrote in post ' Books and I'). I plan to post a couple of reviews every few Weeks.
      Marquez is indisputably one of The greatest novelist. I hope to write a little what his books meant to me, later.

      Delete

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