A couple of blog posts ago, I was complaining about how this friend of mine refused to buy me books because I own over 40 books that I haven’t read. According to him, this is the equivalent of killing trees. Now, while the logic of that may be disputable, I have no choice but to agree to read those books, because, get this, he bought me a book. And not just any book. This is Arun Kolatkar‘s Kala Ghoda Poems, which Bangalore bookstores refuse to stock for whatever absurd reason.
Why do I deserve this book? Because I promised to read 10-15 of the books I own but haven’t read. After some negotiation, we agreed on a list of books that I should read before I get my book (and by agreed, I mean he said, “I’ve edited your proposed list. This is it or the deal’s off” and I said, “Hmph, OK”).
For the curious-minded, here is my very strict reading list for the next few months:
En français
La Gloire de mon père, Marcel Pagnol, 1957
Novels
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866 COMPLETED 20/05/09
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco, 1980
The Tin Drum, Günter Grass, 1959
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami, 2000 COMPLETED 20/06/09
Diary of a Mad Old Man, Junichirō Tanizaki, 1961 COMPLETED 22/07/09
The Makioka Sisters, Junichirō Tanizaki, 1943 – 48
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkein, 1937 (not my choice)
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, 1927
Poetry
The Prophet, Khalil Gibran, 1923
Birthday Letters, Ted Hughes, 1998 (recent almost acquisition, thanks to Kk)*
The Eyes, Don Paterson, 1999*** COMPLETED 28/06/09
Short stories
Him with His Foot in his Mouth and Other Stories, Saul Bellow, 1998
The Best American Erotica, Susie Bright, 1993*** COMPLETED 27/07/09
Diary of a Mad Man and Selected Stories, Nikolai Gogol
Stories from Ladakh, Kusum Kapur, 1994 COMPLETED 28/05/09
The Mammoth Book of International Erotica, ed. Maxim Jakubowski, 1996***
Non-fiction
Sex, Art, and American Culture, Camille Paglia, 1992***
Miscellaneous
The Book of Imaginary Beings, Jorges Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero, revised, enlarged and translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author, 2002**
*Another rule imposed on me is that any new books I buy (random presents not counted) are automatically added to the list. This means I’m going to have to read all these by end October/early November, or I won’t be able to buy anything at the Bangalore Book Festival!
**I recently discovered that I hadn’t read another book I own: The Book of Imaginary Beings. When I told S, he said I could exchange it with something already on the list, so I got rid of Heart of Darkness. 
***I stupidly went on a shopping spree yesterday (24/05) and bought those books. As per the rules, I have to read those as well before I get my Kolatkar.
Out of that list I’ve read and enjoyed Kafka on the Shore, The Hobbit, and The Prophet (I read it in high school and it helped a lot). I hope you like them, or else we can discuss at length what problems each has. (:
Good luck in reaching your goal!
ah…you know i’ve had ‘the name of the rose’ for nearly three years before i could finally bring myself to read it…aparna ma’am gave the ending away in class (overriding my objections). her logic was that it was unlikely anyone in my class would read umberto eco and one person didnt really matter!
i like your blog
@ Phill
I think I’ll like Kafka on the Shore, doubt the other two, but we’ll see.
@ Bhanu
Yay! You’re on my blog!
O man, Aparna did that to us too. I was so upset. Then she promised to lend me her copy of the movie if I read the book. I should take her up on that offer.
If he were really so righteous he’d be out there trying to revolutionize the forest-devouring pulp-shitting publishing industry.
Also I like The Hobbit, but barely. If I’d read it at a later age I wouldn’t ever have been able to connect with it. Age might not be the right measure. You’ll know what I mean when you read it, whether you connect or not.
Name of the Rose is on my shelf and list as well. Tell me when you start, we can be reading buddies!
[...] have more proof of this. One is my current reading list, the fiction section of which (excluding anthologies) is more than 60% male. The other is my [...]
[...] have more proof of this. One is my current reading list, the fiction section of which (excluding anthologies) is more than 60% male. The other is my [...]