Having Read, 2012 #BookGiveAway

Following is a list of book I’ve read in 2012 in no particular order. Let me warn people who are book lovers not all books might be up to their taste as I read all kind of stuff (even kiddish). However some of you might find a few gems as I enjoyed reading them all.

This year also marked my slow migration towards ebooks. I have never liked reading ebooks but now that I have a smart phone I found them pretty convenient.

Take your pick and let me know which one’s you’ve read or post your own list in the comments section.

Oh yes another thing, there’s a surprise at the end of the post. ;-)

1. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami One of the best books I read this year enjoyed the mystical narration, a bit on the psychedelic side. 
2. Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami Another Murakami book and I enjoyed it again. The best thing about Murakami stories is the fact that they all seem to build around music. The guy has a good knowledge of music and enjoys it too. This book was a gift from @snehzana
3.  Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton I have never been much of a sci-fi fan, but Michael Crichton is a magician, his book seems well researched and the use of chaos theory around which the whole premise is built is brilliant. The book obviously a classic is much better than Spielberg’s box office blockbuster.
4. Timeline by Michael Crichton The second sci-fi thriller I enjoyed reading. This book was suggested to me by @vadakkus
5.  The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King  I had never read a Stephen King book before and I started with this one. By the time I ended the book I had mixed feelings, may be this wasn’t his best work or maybe I didn’t like this genre much.
6. Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King As I like writing short stories and reading them as well, I picked up this one and found it much better than the previous King book. Some of the stories were simply brilliant especially “Everything’s Eventual” and “1408”. 
7. One and a Half Wife by Meghna Pant  I got this book as a gift from @Westlandbooks. To be very frank I wouldn’t have picked this book at a bookstore, because when it comes to stories about relationships and emotions I can’t read anyone else than Jhumpa Lahiri. However the book turned out to be nice. 
8. Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot #3)by Agatha Christie  I enjoy reading Poirot but then I am a die-hard Sherlock Holmes and (recently) Feluda fan.
9. The Godfather by Mario Puzo All the wallpapers on my laptop, desktop and cell phone are The Godfather wallpapers. Movies or book, I am a “The Godfather” fan. Period.
   Yes you must must must read it. #DontAksSillyKoschen
10. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Children’s Classic, slow but readable.
11.  The Complete Adventures of Feluda, Vol. 1 by Satyajit Ray Of course I am a Satyajit Ray fan! Of course I’ve seen all Feluda movies (including the newer ones)! Even though I read Feluda stories this year I have known the character for quite some time. You are either a Feluda or a Byomkesh Bakshi fan, I like them both. As I am writing this post Vol. 2 of the book is lying in my bag and I am reading it these days.
12. A Case of Exploding Mangoes byMohammed Hanif I had wanted to read this book for a long time, had heard Mohammed Hanif speak *read tear apart CBag* at more than one Literary festival and let me tell you the book was as hilarious as his conversations.
13. Night Shift by Stephen King Another collection of really good short stories by King, the best one being Quitters Inc.
14.  Nude and Other Short Stories by Various Another book I wouldn’t have read if it didn’t have my own story published in it *yes that’s right and you can order it online here. To tell you the truth, it could have been better.
15. Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez I find all Marquez books quite difficult to read language wise and still he is one of my favorite authors.
16. Kingdom's End: And Other Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto: A collection of short stories by Manto, do I need to say more?
17. A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1) by Arthur Conan Doyle I hadn’t read this one before, found it on Android market and it was like childhood revisited.
18. The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)by Arthur Conan Doyle The second Sherlock Holmes book another master piece by Doyle.
19.  The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5) by Arthur Conan Arguably the most popular Holmes book, I have lost count how many times I have read it. This year I visited it through an ebook.
20. The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes, #7) by Arthur Conan Doyle The fourth Holmes book, not bad!
21. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Another freely available classic on ebooks, liked it. The movie was errmm...
22. The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales by Edgar Allan Poe I don’t know why I read this one.
23. My Man Jeeves (Jeeves, #1) by P.G. Wodehouse I wish I could write even a single story as funny as Wodehouse.
24. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami: A mammoth of a book, liked it and now I really want to read all the books by him. *So if you are planning to send me a gift or something you know what to do*
25. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) by J.K. Rowling Now comes the kiddish part of my “have read” list. I started reading the series just to learn how can someone have such an imagination and write 7 books on a single story. I read it just because I got an ebook on Android.
26. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) by J.K. Rowling This one’s the best book of the series.
28. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4) by J.K. Rowling
29. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5, Part 1) by J.K. Rowling
30. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) by J.K. Rowling
31. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6) by J.K. Rowling
    
32. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7) by J.K. Rowling Does this make me a Potter head?
33. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane Psychological thriller, mindfuck, better than the movie *even though I am Scorsese fan.
34.  The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid Another Pakistani author I wanted to read for a long time, heard a few mixed reviews about the book but enjoyed the way the story has been narrated.
35. English, August: An Indian Story by Upamanyu Chatterjee This is an absolutely hilarious book. One of the best dark humor books I have read.
36. Meenabazar by Saadat Hasan Manto: This is a hindi book, an account of Manto’s life in Bombay film industry. I could identify some of the actors and directors he had written about. The most memorable was what he wrote about Nargis.
37. Munshi Premchand ki 36 Sarvashreshtha Kahaniya: Premchand I guess is one of the most underrated Indian author, I enjoy reading his stories as much as I enjoy reading Manto. Kafan, Gaban, Poos ki Raat, Shatranj ke Khiladi, Prayashchit, Eidgaah are some of the stories I can never forget.

Now that I am done with the list and you have finished reading it, let me make this a bit exciting.

I am giving away four books from the list above. The books numbered 4, 13, 23 and 36 are up for grabs. Just leave a comment as to which book you want and why and I will send it to you. The giveaway is open only for citizens of India.

Tick Tock

The room was filled with a continuous tick tock sound. His father was a collector of all kinds of clocks and the room was full of them. Hundreds on walls and may be a thousand on the tables all around the room. Tick tock they went relentlessly as if they were all on an unending journey. Their hands moved unstoppably.

The seven year old boy cowered in a corner under a sheet. Sometimes he pulled down the sheet to look at the fan rotating on its axis keeping time with the tick tock. His mind lulled to the constant humming of the clocks and fell into a kind of a lazy slumber. By the end of the hour when his body was about to be engulfed in sleep the simultaneous chimes of the clocks would jolt him back to sleeplessness and the process would start again. The night outside the clock covered walls remained silent.

Twenty five years later he would spend the first few weeks after his marriage smashing all the clocks and watches he got as gift.

Outsider #55WordStory

After much deliberation he rang the doorbell.

Even after three years, he couldn’t get her out of his head. He landed at her doorsteps in an alien country to ask one last question.

She opened the door. A man stood behind her, his arms around her waist. She stared at him like an outsider.

Masks

Remember the night we lay together looking into each other’s eyes. We talked about our dreams, our fears, our love, our hatred what you didn’t like about me, what I wanted you to change. We shouted, we cried but the night didn’t end.

One by one our masks wore off and we were naked again.

Abyss

Their togetherness had just been a mirage. Like a staring contest which he lost the moment he blinked. 

She was gone and with her lost was the utopia.

In the bottomless pit where the memories dwelt of a past that could not be, he found his solace.

Blue

I still have the teal colored mint candy you'd given me when we met,
It's all soggy but it's still there in an iris snuff box.

The azure colored metro rail card still has some cash balance,
I use it when I am in the city, it makes me feel blue every time I am on one of those things.

The turquoise dress you had worn is still fresh in my memory,
Every time I dream of you, you're wearing the same dress and the dreams are all indigo

One Zaffre colored button that had come off and you couldn't find it,
Well it's safe in the snuff box along with one of your cerulean colored ear studs.

The cover of the first book I gave to you was ultramarine in color,
I dont remember the name or the author but the color of sky was electric blue in the month of March.

Saw this girl with a Cobalt blue bag exactly like the one I gave you,
Wish it wasn't red,which you had so liked, but it went well with the denims that you wore.

My diary is full of words in ink which is royal blue and they are all about you
My memories are where you live and the memories are all cyan.

I have hidden all your memories somewhere deep in my cupboard.
The fountain pen, the diary, the candy and the metro card.

Somewhere deep within I knew you'd become a part of my memories,
I kept all that belonged to you,iris, zaffre, cyan and blue.

I wish there was a different color in life without you,
But all I am left with are different colors of you.